Hezbollah says commander killed in Israeli strike as aid groups withdraw from Gaza

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Key Points
  • Wissam Hassan Tawil was killed by an Israeli airstrike in South Lebanon.
  • Tawil played a central role in managing Hezbollah’s operations in Lebanon’s south.
  • World Health Organization cancelled medical supply distribution in Gaza’s north.
Israel killed a top Hezbollah commander in a strike on south Lebanon, the Iran-backed group and a security official said, as regional tensions soar amid the Gaza war.
Hezbollah in a statement announced the killing of a “commander” for the first time in three months of cross-border clashes with Israeli forces.

It said Wissam Hassan Tawil had died “on the road to Jerusalem” – the phrase used by the Shiite Muslim movement for fighters killed by Israel.

A security source told AFP that Tawil “had a leading role in managing Hezbollah’s operations in the south”, near the Israeli border.

The official, requesting anonymity for security reasons, said that the commander, who held several other top positions in the group, “was killed in an Israeli strike targeting his car in the south”.
The Israeli military said it on Monday, but did not immediately comment on Tawil’s death.
A man stands in front of homes destroyed during the conflict

A man checks a destroyed building after an Israeli air raid in the village of Kfar Kila in southern Lebanon, amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza. Source: Getty / Hassan Fneich

Regional tensions

Tawil was the highest-ranking Hezbollah member to be killed since near-daily exchanges of fire with Israeli forces across the border began after the .
The war between Hamas and Israel is the latest escalation in a long-standing conflict.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Nasser Kanani, strongly condemned the attack and warned against the “efforts of the Zionist regime (Israel) to expand the scope of conflict and war in the region”.

Kanani described Israel’s actions as “blatant terrorist operations”, which he said were due to “painful blows inflicted on its false hegemony in field battles, including in the Gaza Strip.”
The cross-border violence has killed more than 180 people in Lebanon, including over 135 Hezbollah fighters, but also more than 20 civilians including three journalists, according to an AFP tally.

In northern Israel, nine soldiers and at least four civilians have been killed, according to Israeli authorities.

Gaza aid organisations withdraw

The World Health Organization (WHO) said it had been compelled to cancel a mission to bring after failing to receive security guarantees.

It was the fourth time WHO called off a planned mission to bring urgently needed medical supplies to Al-Awda Hospital and the central drug store in northern Gaza since 26 December, it said.

The delivery planned on Sunday, WHO said, had been designed to sustain the operations of five hospitals in the northern part of the enclave.

The International Rescue Committee aid group said its emergency medical team and the Medical Aid for Palestinians charity had been forced to withdraw and cease its activities at the Al Aqsa Hospital in Gaza’s Middle Area due to increasing Israel military activity in the area.

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