Israel announced the killing of the chief of staff of Hezbollah in Lebanon

The Prime Minister's Office and the Defense Forces of Israel announced the killing of the powerful leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon, Tabtabai.

According to reports from Xinhua News Agency and Reuters, the Israel Defense Forces issued a statement on Sunday evening (November 23) that the Israeli army carried out an air strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, on the same day, killing Haytham Ali Tabtabai, the chief of staff of Hezbollah. Hezbollah later confirmed his death, praising Tabtabai as a "great jihadist commander" and saying that he "fought against the enemy of Israel until his last breath".

Tabtabai joined Hezbollah in the 1980s and held a series of senior positions, including commander of Hezbollah's elite Radwan force and head of Hezbollah's operations in Syria. After the outbreak of the current Israel-Kazakhstan conflict, Tabatabai was appointed as the head of Hezbollah's military operations department, responsible for integrating the combat situation and assembling forces.

The statement said that after most of Hezbollah's leadership was wiped out by the Israeli army in the second half of last year, Tabatabai was actually in charge of commanding the combat operations against Israel. After the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon in November 2024, he officially took up the position of "Chief of the General Staff" of Hezbollah and led the organization's reconstruction efforts.

Hezbollah in Lebanon later issued a statement confirming that Tabatabai was killed in an Israeli "perfitious" air strike on the same day. The statement said that Tabatabai is an "outstanding" commander of Hezbollah. He has been involved in Hezbollah's military activities since its early days and has long played a "central" role in the struggle against Israel. His sacrifice will further strengthen the will of Hezbollah's armed personnel, and Hezbollah has vowed to continue its confrontation with Israel.

The Times of Israel reported that Tabatabai was born in Beirut in 1968. His mother is Lebanese and his father is Iranian. He grew up in southern Lebanon. Since 2016, the United States has been hunting for Tabatbai and offering a reward of 5 million US dollars for related clues.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said in a statement that Israel will never allow Hezbollah to rebuild its power and will never allow Hezbollah to pose a threat to Israel again. He expects the Lebanese government to fulfill its commitment to disarm Hezbollah.

Israel claims that it will continue to abide by the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon. However, since the ceasefire agreement was reached, Israel has not only refused to completely withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon, but also frequently launched air strikes against Lebanon on the grounds that Hezbollah violated the ceasefire agreement, causing casualties, and used this to pressure the Lebanese government. The air strike on the 23rd was the first Israeli air strike on Beirut in recent months.