Hezbollah fires rockets at Israeli positions to avenge killing of another high-ranking commander

Lebanon-based Hezbollah on Wednesday said it had fired a barrage of rockets targeting Israeli positions in retaliation for an attack that killed one of its senior commanders, the third top Hezbollah commander to be killed in almost nine months of hostilities along the Israel-Lebanon border.

Hezbollah has traded near daily cross-border fire with the Israeli army since its Palestinian ally Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, triggering war in Gaza, but an uptick in bellicose rhetoric from both sides in recent weeks has raised fears of all-out war.

"A Hezbollah commander responsible for one of three sectors in south Lebanon was killed" in an "Israeli strike on a car in Tyre", a source close to the group told AFP, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media.

The Iran-backed group said that "commander Mohammed Naameh Nasser", also known as "Hajj Abu Naameh" had been killed, and also announced the death of a second fighter.

The Israeli army said in a statement that it "eliminated" Nasser, saying he was "the commander of the Hezbollah terrorist organisation's Aziz Unit which is responsible for firing from southwestern Lebanon at Israeli territory".

In a statement, Hezbollah said that "as part of the response to the attack and assassination that the enemy carried out" in south Lebanon's Tyre, its fighters attacked two positions in the Israeli-annexed Syrian Golan Heights "with 100 Katyusha rockets".


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