Tension between Hezbollah and Israel increased Thursday on the southern front.
The commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force, Ali Jaafar Maatouk, also known as Habib Maatouk, was killed in an Israeli raid on Jmaïmeh. Hezbollah confirmed Maatouk’s death in an official statement.
Hezbollah had previously announced the death of another of its fighters, Hassan Ali Mhanna, nicknamed “Abu Hadi” who died following a strike that hit a vehicle in the district of Tyre.
On another hand, media reports indicated that “an Israeli officer succumbed to his injuries following a drone explosion in the Golan Heights”.
On the operational military front, Hezbollah announced, in a statement, that it had launched an air attack using a squadron of drones on an Israeli military base south-east of Safed.
Alarm sirens sounded east of Safed, while smoke billowed over Upper Galilee.
An Israeli air strike targeted the area around the Mays al-Jabal and two other raids targeted the outskirts of the town of Majdel Selm while heavy Israeli shelling poured on Marj al-Khiam.
During the day, Israeli warplanes broke the sound barrier several times over southern localities. Consequently, the ceiling of a house in Kfar Tibnit collapsed.
An Israeli raid was also carried out against the locality of Jabal Ain al-Tineh in Western Beqaa.
Furthermore, Israeli bombings targeted the towns of Wadi al-Bayad and Hula towards Wadi Saluki.
For its part, Hezbollah declared bombing the Israeli sites of Barkat Risha and al-Raheb “with Burkan missiles,” directly hitting them “and setting them on fire.”
Hezbollah also destroyed “the espionage equipment” of the Israeli sites in Hadab Yaroun and Metula.
