Haytham Ali Tabatabai was said to be second-in-command of the Lebanese militant group
An Israeli airstrike on Beirut on Sunday has killed a senior commander in the militant movement Hezbollah.
Haytham Ali Tabatabai, also known by his nom de guerre Abu Ali Tabatabai, was struck in the Haret Hreik district, a stronghold of Hezbollah in the Lebanese capital. Both Hezbollah and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed his death. According to Lebanon’s Health Ministry, the attack killed at least five people and injured 28 others.
Tabatabai joined Hezbollah as a teenager after its formation during Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon. He was one of the few long-serving commanders to survive Israel’s targeted-killing campaign last year.
Hezbollah is among the Iran-backed forces opposing Israel’s regional dominance. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the strike, calling it part of Israel’s ongoing efforts to destroy the group, which it accuses of terrorism.
“It is not for nothing that the US put a bounty of five million dollars on his head,” Netanyahu said on X, referring to the reward the US issued in 2016, a year after Tabatabai escaped an earlier Israeli assassination attempt.
Israeli officials said Tabatabai served as the group’s “second-in-command” within its current military hierarchy. Hezbollah referred to him as a “great commander.”
Netanyahu claimed Tabatabai had been overseeing Hezbollah’s rearmament efforts as the organization worked to rebuild its capabilities following a string of setbacks by Israel, including the detonation of booby-trapped pagers last year that Israeli intelligence previously infiltrated into the movement’s supply channels. He argued that dismantling the organization would enable “a better future… for every citizen in Lebanon.”
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the latest attack, calling on the international community to “assume its responsibility and intervene firmly and seriously to stop the attacks on Lebanon and its people.”
