BEIRUT, Jan 8: Israel killed a top commander of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in a strike on south Lebanon, a security source told AFP, adding to fears the conflict in Gaza could spread.
The commander “had a leading role in managing Hezbollah’s operations in the south”, the security official said, requesting anonymity over security concerns.
The official added that he “was killed in an Israeli strike targeting his car in the south”.
The commander held several other top positions in the Shia movement, the official said.
Hezbollah and its arch-foe Israel have exchanged near-daily fire across the border after the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7.
But the killing of Hamas’s deputy leader in Beirut last week has raised fears of a wider conflagration.
Saleh al-Aruri, who was killed in a missile strike widely attributed to Israel, was the most high-profile Hamas figure to die during the war, in the first attack on Beirut since fighting began.
On Saturday, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell met a Hezbollah political official in Beirut as part of a push to avoid Lebanon being dragged into the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Nearly three months of cross-border fire have killed more than 180 people in Lebanon, including over 135 Hezbollah fighters, but also more than 20 civilians including three journalists, according to an AFP tally.
In northern Israel, nine soldiers and at least four civilians have been killed, according to Israeli authorities. (Agencies)
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