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Hezbollah leader’s personal secretary killed in Beirut strike

Ali Yusuf Harshi served as a “close associate and personal advisor” to Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem.

The "Adir" (F-35I) fighter jet during the "Blue Flag", an international aerial training exercise at the Ovda air force base, Southern Israel, November 11, 2019. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90.
The “Adir” (F-35I) fighter jet during the “Blue Flag”, an international aerial training exercise at the Ovda air force base, Southern Israel, November 11, 2019. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90.

The Israel Defense Forces eliminated the personal secretary of Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem, the Israeli military said on Thursday.

Ali Yusuf Harshi “played a key role in managing and securing Qassem’s office,” according to the IDF.

The IDF said it also targeted “two key crossings used by Hezbollah terrorists and commanders for movement from north to south of the Litani River in Lebanon to transfer thousands of weapons, rockets and launchers” in overnight airstrikes.

“Furthermore, approximately 10 weapons storage facilities, launchers and command centers used by the Hezbollah terrorist organization in Southern Lebanon were struck,” it added.

The Israeli Air Force on Wednesday launched its largest coordinated strikes against Hezbollah terror targets in Lebanon since the start of “Operation Roaring Lion” against Iran and its regional proxies on Feb. 28.

The large-scale wave of attacks targeted Hezbollah headquarters, military infrastructure and command-and-control centers in Beirut, the Beqaa Valley and Southern Lebanon, according to the Israeli army.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an address on Wednesday night said Hezbollah suffered “the greatest blow since the pagers,” in reference to the Sept. 17-18, 2024, attacks in Lebanon, which wounded thousands of terrorist operatives. “We attacked 100 targets in 10 minutes, in places Hezbollah was certain were immune,” he stated.

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