Israel killed a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon on Tuesday, as confirmed by the Shiite political-military group. This is the first time in the last eight months of war in Gaza that Hezbollah has acknowledged the death of one of its senior commanders in an Israeli attack.

The senior commander was Sami Abdallah, alias Abu Taleb. According to Lebanese military sources cited by AFP, he died in a bombing raid on the town of Jouaiyya, southern Lebanon. Three other people were killed in the same attack by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). He is the highest-ranking Hezbollah member to be killed by Israel since the start of the war in Gaza.

Hezbollah issued a statement in which it lamented the death "with pride and honor" of the commander, whom it declared a “martyr” in his struggle against the State of Israel. With the death of Abu Taleb, the number of members of the pro-Iran armed militia who have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 7 rises to 458.

This latest blow by Israel to the Shiite Islamists occurs in a context of pre-war tension in the north of the country. Since the start of the war in Gaza, Hezbollah has launched rockets against northern Israel from southern Lebanon. These attacks forced the Jewish State to evacuate the northern region of the country and displace nearly 70,000 civilians.

The Netanyahu government recently warned Hezbollah that if its attacks against the north of the country continued, the IDF would increase its response level and hit the terrorist group hard.

170 missile salvo against Israel

After announcing the death of its commander, Hezbollah responded against Israel by launching a salvo of 170 missiles over the north of the country. The attack lasted for much of the entire morning of this Wednesday and set off anti-missile alarms in the country.

The Iron Dome system intercepted most of the projectiles and at the moment no serious damage has been reported. The rockets have indeed caused fires in the northern region, which are aggravating the fires that already broke out more than a week ago.

Hezbollah claims that its attack targeted military targets, but Israeli anti-missile alarm applications report alerts in inhabited and civilian areas inside the country.

The IDF reported that as a result of the missile attacks, its air force carried out attack missions against Hezbollah positions. Throughout the morning, the air force carried out several of these attacks against firing positions in southern Lebanon.