BEIRUT

Israel killed a high commander of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in a strike on south Lebanon, a safety supply instructed AFP Monday, including to fears the battle in Gaza may unfold.

Hezbollah later introduced the killing of a “commander” for the primary time, naming him as Wissam Hassan Tawil. It mentioned he died “on the road to Jerusalem” — the phrase used for fighters killed by Israel.

Tawil “had a leading role in managing Hezbollah’s operations in the south”, the safety official mentioned, requesting anonymity for safety causes.

The official added that the commander, who held a number of different high positions within the group, “was killed in an Israeli strike targeting his car in the south”.

Tawil was the highest-ranking Hezbollah member to be killed because the group and Israel started exchanging near-daily cross-border hearth after the Israel-Hamas struggle broke out on Oct. 7.

The killing of Hamas’s deputy chief in Beirut final week has raised fears of a wider conflagration.

Saleh al-Aruri, killed in a missile strike extensively attributed to Israel, was essentially the most high-profile Hamas determine to die through the struggle, within the first assault on Beirut because the preventing started.

On Friday, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel his fighters would reply swiftly to Aruri’s killing. The group claimed an assault on an Israeli air management base the subsequent day.

On Saturday, European Union overseas coverage chief Josep Borrell met Mohammed Raad, head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, in Beirut as a part of a push to keep away from Lebanon being dragged into the Israel-Hamas battle.

In November, Raad’s son was killed in an Israeli strike in south Lebanon together with 5 different fighters, the group had mentioned.

Nearly three months of cross-border hearth have killed greater than 180 folks in Lebanon, together with over 135 Hezbollah fighters, but additionally greater than 20 civilians together with three journalists, in accordance with an AFP tally.

In northern Israel, 9 troopers and no less than 4 civilians have been killed, in accordance with Israeli authorities.