{"id":399439,"date":"2025-11-23T16:10:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T16:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/399439\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T16:10:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T16:10:18","slug":"israel-targets-hezbollah-chief-of-staff-with-first-strike-on-beirut-in-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/399439\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel targets Hezbollah chief of staff with first strike on Beirut in months"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n The Israeli military has conducted an air strike on southern Beirut, the first since early June, targeting Hezbollah\u2019s second most senior figure.\n <\/p>\n

\n The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the IDF struck \u201cin the heart of Beirut, targeting Hezbollah\u2019s Chief of Staff, who led the organization\u2019s buildup and armament efforts.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n An Israeli source told CNN that the target of the attack was Haytham Ali Tabatabai, effectively Hezbollah\u2019s second-in-command, but said it was not clear yet if he was killed.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Lebanese Health Ministry reported one person had been killed and 21 injured in the strike, which took place among apartment buildings in a crowded area of southern Beirut.\n <\/p>\n

\n Images from the scene showed smoke coming from the fourth or fifth floor of an apartment building in a crowded part of southern Beirut.\n <\/p>\n

\n Netanyahu ordered the strike based on the recommendation of the Minister of Defense and the IDF Chief of Staff, his office said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe will continue to act forcefully to prevent any threat to the residents of the north and to the State of Israel,\u201d said Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, adding: \u201cAnyone who raises a hand against Israel \u2014 his hand will be cut off.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n An Israeli strike on southern Beirut in September 2024 killed Hezbollah\u2019s long-time leader Hassan Nasrallah, and Israeli strikes have hollowed out the group\u2019s military leadership. <\/strong>Israel also blew up pagers<\/a> and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah members, killing dozens of people.\n <\/p>\n

\n A ceasefire was agreed through US mediation a year ago, but Israeli forces have continued to strike Hezbollah infrastructure and fighters in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa valley.\n <\/p>\n

\"Israel<\/p>\n

\n The United States designated<\/a> Tabatabai as a terrorist in 2016, saying he was a key Hezbollah military leader \u201cwho has commanded the group\u2019s special forces in both Syria and Yemen.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The US Rewards for Justice program offered up to $5 million for information on Tabatabai.\n <\/p>\n

\n Under the ceasefire agreement, Hezbollah is meant to surrender its heavy weapons and withdraw all personnel from south of the Litani river.\n <\/p>\n

\n There has been little progress on disarmament, leading Israeli officials to warn that military action will be stepped up unless the Lebanese government moves to curb Hezbollah.\n <\/p>\n

\n Lebanese President Joseph Aoun accused Israel earlier this month of sparing \u201cno effort to show its rejection of any negotiated settlement between the two countries.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Israeli military has conducted an air strike on southern Beirut, the first since early June, targeting Hezbollah\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":399440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[99,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-399439","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-israel","9":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115599890571297773","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}