By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – An Israeli strike on a vehicle has killed a commander in a secretive Hezbollah force that operates along the border, several sources say.
It comes as Israel steps up deadly strikes against those it says are involved in attacks against the Jewish nation, with Israeli air raids reported on Lebanon and Syria.
Hezbollah named the killed fighter as Wissam al-Tawil without providing details.
He is the most senior militant in the armed group known to have been killed since Hamas’ October 7 attack into southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people, triggering an all-out war in Gaza.
The strike came after Israel’s military said Sunday that the Iran-backed Hezbollah force struck an air traffic control base in northern Israel and warned of “another war” with the Iran-backed militant group.
Days earlier, Israel was believed to have killed a top commander of Hezbollah ally Hamas in Beirut. Israel said the attack in the Lebanese capital was not a strike against Lebanon.
Although Israel has neither confirmed nor denied that it assassinated Saleh al-Arouri, a spokesman called last week’s attack a “surgical strike against the Hamas leadership.” Hamas, which Israel has vowed to destroy, denounced it as a “terrorist act,” while its ally Hezbollah called it “an assault on Lebanese sovereignty.”
SYRIA STRIKES
Well-informed sources said Monday that Israel also carries out an “unprecedented wave” of deadly strikes in Syria targeting cargo trucks, infrastructure, and people involved in Iran’s weapons supplies to militia Tehran supports.
The intensified air campaign reportedly killed 19 Hezbollah members in Syria in three months – more than twice the rest of 2023 combined. More than 130 Hezbollah fighters have also been killed by Israeli shelling of southern Lebanon in the same period, sources said.
U. S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has rushed to the region in an attempt to prevent a broader armed conflict, but the ongoing cross-border attacks seemed to make his job more difficult with each passing hour.
“This is a conflict that could easily metastasize, causing even more insecurity and even more suffering,” Blinken acknowledged to reporters after talks in Qatar, a key mediator.
Blinken said earlier that Turkey is also committed to playing “a positive, productive” role for postwar Gaza and prepared to use its influence in the region to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from broadening even more.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether Israel shared that assessment after Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan recently compared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Nazi Germany’s leader Adolf Hitler while discussing Israel’s war in Gaza.
Blinken’s fourth visit to the Middle East came after he visited Turkey and Greece, followed by stops in Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia on Sunday and Monday.
VISITING ISRAEL
He was to visit Israel and the West Bank on Tuesday and Wednesday before wrapping up the trip in Egypt, though it wasn’t clear whether plans would change amid rapidly escalating tensions.
Israel says it has largely wrapped up major operations against Hamas in northern Gaza and is now focusing on the central region and the southern city of Khan Younis.
Israel warned the fighting would continue for many months as its army seeks to dismantle Hamas, which it regards as a terrorist organization.
They also want the return of scores of hostages taken during the Hamas attacks on October 7.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says nearly 23,000 people have been killed in Israel’s war on Hamas, although those figures have been difficult to verify.
Nearly 2 million people have been displaced amid the war, several sources say.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
Nuclear material has been discovered in Syria and placed under International Atomic Energy Agency oversight, reviving attention on a clandestine nuclear program that Israel destroyed nearly two decades ago.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. special envoy Jared Kushner have reached an understanding that Hamas must be fully disarmed and the Gaza Strip demilitarized before reconstruction begins or Israeli forces withdraw, marking a significant narrowing of differences between Jerusalem and the Trump administration over the future of Gaza.
Humanoid robots capable of navigating rugged terrain, detecting people and conducting around-the-clock surveillance could eventually join U.S. Border Patrol operations along the southern border, as an American robotics company moves closer to potential national-security deployments.
Israel carried out an unusual airstrike deep inside northwestern Syria early Tuesday, targeting the strategic Abu al-Duhur military airfield shortly after a Turkish military delegation reportedly visited the base to assess its rehabilitation, according to Israeli and Syrian reports. The operation prompted a rare public rebuke from a senior U.S. envoy.
Newly declassified FBI records released by the White House detail what officials describe as a years-long Chinese intelligence effort to penetrate American political circles through sexual relationships, campaign donations, and strategically placed interns.
President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace is considering a significant overhaul of its Gaza disarmament framework after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a plan that would have linked Hamas weapons handovers to phased Israeli troop withdrawals, according to an exclusive report by The Times of Israel.
Iran’s rulers were quietly preparing for a broader and potentially prolonged Middle East war even as Tehran publicly engaged in diplomatic efforts with the United States, according to an exclusive investigation by The Wall Street Journal.