A Lebanese man checks a destroyed house that was hit by an Israeli airstrike, in Alma al-Shaab, a Lebanese border village with Israel, south Lebanon, Wednesday, April 17, 2024. AP
Hezbollah launched "a combined attack with guided missiles and explosive drones on a military reconnaissance command center" in northern Israel, "in response to the enemy assassinating a number of resistance fighters in Ain Baal and Shehabiya" on Tuesday, the movement said.
Israel said Tuesday that its strikes in south Lebanon killed two local Hezbollah commanders and another operative.
Israel and Hamas ally Hezbollah have been exchanging near-daily cross-border fire since the war on Gaza started on October 7.
The Israeli military said its "aircraft struck and eliminated Ismail Yusef Baz, the commander of Hezbollah's coastal sector", adding he was killed in south Lebanon's Ain Baal area.
In another statement, the military said "Aircraft struck and eliminated the commander of the rockets and missiles unit of Hezbollah's Radwan Forces in Lebanon's central and western region", referring to the group's elite forces and identifying the fighter as Mohammed Shehoury.
It said the attack near south Lebanon's Shehabiya also killed another "operative of Hezbollah's rockets and missiles unit".
Hezbollah said in a statement that Baz had been killed, without mentioning his rank or role, while a source close to the group told AFP that "the field commander in charge of the Naqura region" had been killed "in an Israeli strike".
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