The Israel Defense Forces said Friday that it killed a senior Hezbollah operative in a strike on southern Lebanon, and that troops carried out a series of overnight operations in southern Syria.
Ahmad Naeem Maatouk, a member of the Iran-backed terror group’s elite Radwan Force, was targeted in an attack on the municipality of Sir El Gharbiyeh, just north of the Litani River, the IDF said. English-language news outlet L’Orient Today published what it said was footage from the scene showing a group of people inspecting a bombed-out car.
According to the IDF, Maatouk served as operations officer in a Radwan battalion and advanced multiple terror plots against Israel during the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war that ended with a November 27 ceasefire agreement.
The IDF said Maatouk’s actions violated arrangements between Israel and Lebanon.
Under a November ceasefire deal, Lebanon’s army has been deploying in the country’s south and dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure there with the support of UN observers.
The Lebanese government is expected on Sunday to come up with a plan to convince Hezbollah to disarm, US envoy Tom Barrack said Tuesday.
Speaking in Tel Aviv after visiting Lebanon, US Senator Lindsey Graham said Thursday that if Hezbollah does not agree to disarm, it should face military action.
“If we cannot reach a peaceful disarmament solution for Hezbollah, then we need to look at plan B,” the South Carolina Republican said at a press conference. “Plan B is disarming Hezbollah by military force.”
The US should support the Lebanese Armed Forces in that effort, said Graham, who is considered a close ally of US President Donald Trump.
“If we have to use military force to disarm Hezbollah, I think it’s in America’s interest to make sure the Lebanese army is successful,” he said.
Hezbollah began launching near-daily attacks on Israel border towns on October 8, 2023 — a day after fellow Iran-backed terror group Hamas invaded southern Israel, sparking the war in Gaza.
Hezbollah’s rocket attacks displaced some 60,000 residents of northern Israel. In a bid to ensure their return home, Israel in September stepped up operations in Lebanon, leading to two months of open warfare that ended with the November truce.
The IDF said Friday that its forces carried out a series of overnight operations in southern Syria, uncovering weapons and detaining several suspects accused of advancing terror activity against Israeli troops in the area.
The statement did not address reports by Syrian state media on Thursday that Israeli commandos raided a Syrian military installation near Damascus following two days of airstrikes. The IDF has yet to comment on those reports.
According to the IDF, the raids overnight Thursday-Friday were conducted by the 226th Reserve Paratroopers Brigade under the 210th Bashan Regional Division with assistance from field investigators in Military Intelligence’s Unit 504.
The IDF said troops remain on the Syrian side of the Israeli-Syrian buffer zone.
Citing concern that the buffer zone would fall into the wrong hands, Israel seized the area in December following the ouster of Syria’s Iran-backed president Bashar al-Assad at the end of a 14-year civil war.
A bipartisan trio of US lawmakers who visited Damascus criticized on Thursday what they said were Israel’s “destabilizing” strikes on Syria.
“The Syrians are prepared to move forward with Israel to advance peace,” they said in a statement. “It is unclear how long the door to this opportunity will remain open.”