Three senior Hezbollah operatives were killed in an airstrike in Beirut on Monday, the Israel Defense Forces said on Monday night.
The precision strike eliminated Hamza Ibrahim Rakhin, the deputy commander of Hezbollah’s Unit 1800, along with his operations chief and a third operative, according to the IDF. Unit 1800 is the Hezbollah branch that is responsible for coordinating with Palestinian terrorist allies in Lebanon, Syria, the Gaza Strip and Judea and Samaria.
“As part of his role,” the IDF stated, “Rakhin also led the deployment of terrorists from those organizations to fight against our soldiers operating in Southern Lebanon.” Hezbollah headquarters in Beirut and elsewhere in Southern Lebanon were targeted in separate strikes on Monday, according to the military.
In a separate statement on Tuesday morning, the military announced that soldiers of its 36th Division had eliminated “dozens” of terrorists who tried to carry out ambushes in Southern Lebanon over the past day.”
“One of the terrorists was identified armed with an RPG while preparing to fire toward IDF soldiers, and was eliminated prior to carrying out the attack. In addition, the troops apprehended a Hezbollah terrorist who was observing the soldiers. The terrorist was transferred for further questioning,” the statement continued.
The troops were also said to have dismantled weapon storage facilities, destroying “numerous” arms caches, as well as command centers and a rocket launcher that had been used to fire at northern Israeli communities.
“The IDF will continue to operate with intensity against the Hezbollah terror group, which decided to join the campaign and operate at the behest of the Iranian terrorist regime, and will not allow harm to the citizens of the State of Israel,” the statement concluded.
Also on Tuesday morning, the IDF announced the deaths of four soldiers in Southern Lebanon. Capt. Noam Madmoni, 22, from Sderot; Staff-Sgt. Ben Cohen, 21, from Lehavim; and Staff-Sgt. Maxsim Entis, 21, from Bat Yam served in Reconnaissance Battalion 934, the Nahal Brigade’s special forces unit. The name of the fourth casualty had not yet been cleared for publication, according to the military, but his family had been notified.
The four soldiers were reportedly killed during a close-range exchange of fire with Hezbollah terrorists in the western sector of Southern Lebanon.
