IDF takes on Hezbollah HQ commander Husseini

Assaults on Tel Aviv came as Israel launched strikes in Gaza and added troops in Lebanon.

A plume of smoke billows following an Israeli air strike on the village of Khiam in southern Lebanon this week. Picture: AFP

The Israel Defence Forces claimed to have killed the commander of Hezbollah’s headquarters, Suhail Hussein Husseini.

Husseini, who Israel said was responsible for budgeting and the logistics of Hezbollah’s most sensitive projects, was killed in an airstrike on Monday. The IDF said he was a member of the Jihad council.

“Husseini played a crucial role in weapon transfers between Iran and Hezbollah and was responsible for distributing the advanced weaponry among Hezbollah’s units, overseeing both the transportation and allocation of these arms,” the IDF said on Tuesday.

The headquarters includes Hezbollah’s Research and Development Unit, responsible for manufacturing precision-guided missiles and managing the storage and transport of weapons. Militants in Gaza, Yemen and Lebanon targeted Tel Aviv with rockets and missiles on the anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel that sparked an expanding multifront war in the Middle East.

Most of the strikes, which were preceded by sirens that sent Israelis into bomb shelters, were intercepted or fell harmlessly into open areas. Israeli officials said two people were injured by shrapnel.

The rocket fire on Monday came hours after the Israeli military said it launched strikes in the Gaza Strip to thwart attacks from Hamas.

Israelis attended ceremonies on Monday memorialising a year since Hamas-led militants mounted an assault that killed 1200 and kidnapped around 250 people, with many still held in Gaza.

Israel in recent weeks had shifted focus from Gaza to Lebanon, where the Israeli military last week launched a ground offensive against Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia that has supported Hamas with rocket fire against communities in northern Israel.

The Israeli military said on Monday it had deployed a new division of soldiers in the ground offensive inside Lebanon.

The fresh troops marked an increase in personnel but not an expansion of the goals of the operation or a deepening of Israel’s presence inside Lebanon, a military spokesman said. The aim of the operation is to destroy tunnels, weapons caches and rocket launchpads in areas on the border that could be used in an attack against Israeli communities.

Hamas in Gaza said it fired the rockets on Israel’s commercial hub as part of its continuing war with Israel. The Israeli military said five projectiles fell in central Israel. Israeli warplanes later hit sites in southern Gaza from which Hamas fired the rockets.

A missile was fired from Yemen towards central Israel and intercepted by Israel’s air force, according to the military. About five projectiles were fired from Lebanon, authorities said.

While Hamas has regularly fired rockets at Israeli towns and cities since the war began in Gaza on October 7 last year, the assaults have become infrequent in recent months as the Israeli military has disrupted the terrorist group’s military operations inside the strip. The rocket fire is yet another sign of the difficult task Israel faces in turning tactical military gains in Gaza into a victory that provides long-term security for Israelis.

The Israeli military earlier on Monday said it had bombed launch sites for Hamas rockets to thwart an immediate attack and a day earlier reopened an offensive in northern Gaza to combat Hamas militants.

“We remember our dead, our hostages, whom we are obligated to bring back, and our heroes who fell in defence of the homeland and the nation,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, marking the anniversary of the October 7 attacks.

“We went through a terrible massacre a year ago.”

Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has expanded over the year to include Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthi rebels and Iran, which backs all three militias.

Israel is fighting on the ground in Gaza and Lebanon, and has launched airstrikes targeting Houthis in Yemen and on Iranian weapons shipments bound for Hezbollah through Syria. The Israeli military is also battling Palestinian militants in the Israeli-controlled West Bank.

Israel is also considering how to retaliate against Iran for launching roughly 180 ballistic missiles last week on Israeli territory – a response that risks metastasizing an already-complex conflict.

Israel is consulting with the US on how to respond to the Iranian attack, which American forces helped defend. Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant is expected to visit Washington this week to meet with Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin. The top US commander for the Middle East, Erik Kurilla, visited Israel on Sunday to discuss Iran and Hezbollah with Israeli military officials.

President Joe Biden shared his condolences with Israel on the Oct­ober 7 anniversary in a call with Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Monday, reiterating a US commitment to Israel’s safety and right to defend itself from attacks by Iran and Iran-backed militants.

He also expressed “deep sadness for the loss of innocent life in Gaza and the ongoing suffering of Palestinian civilians as a result of the war that Hamas unleashed.”

Additional reporting: The Wall Street Journal