IDF Eliminates Another Senior Hezbollah Operative in Lebanon
October 08, 2024
10:33 AM
Reading time: 5 minutes
The IDF announced on Tuesday that it had eliminated Suhail Hussein Husseini, the head of Hezbollah’s logistical headquarters and a member of the Jihad Council, in a targeted airstrike in Beirut. The report came amidst growing momentum in the IDF's ground campaign in southern Lebanon, designed to push Hezbollah away from the border so they cannot threaten northern Israeli communities.
However, Hezbollah has also continued firing volleys of rockets into Israel, including an attack on Tel Aviv just before midnight on Monday. Most of their attacks have been intercepted by IDF air defense, but some weapons got through causing damage and some injuries.
The IDF said it would continue intercepting missile attacks on Israeli cities and it would also continue hitting Hezbollah leaders like Husseini, adding that this evil man "played a crucial role in weapon transfers between Iran and Hezbollah and was responsible for distributing the advanced weaponry among Hezbollah’s units, overseeing both the transportation and allocation of these arms."
He was also “responsible for the budgeting and logistical management of Hezbollah’s most sensitive projects, including the organization’s war plans and other special operations, such as coordinating terrorist attacks against Israel from Lebanon and Syria.”
The Hezbollah headquarters that Husseini was in at the time of his death was almost completely destroyed. The IDF said it contained the facilities for Hezbollah's R&D programs, responsible for the development and manufacture of precision-guided missiles.
Prior to the strike, the IDF issued warnings to residents of nearby buildings to leave the area immediately.
In related news, the IDF announced on Tuesday that the 146th Reserve Division has been deployed into southern Lebanon, enabling an expansion of the operation to clear Hezbollah positions moving westward towards the coast. This new division joins the 98th, 36th, and 91st which are already in operating inside Lebanon.
The IDF has also added the areas of the communities of Rosh Hanikra, Shlomi, Hanita, Adamit and Arab al-Aramshe to the list of closed military zones near the border. It also warned residents of Lebanon south of the Awali River, which is north of Sidon, to stay away from the sea and the beach for the foreseeable future.
Additionally, around 100 Israeli jets struck more then 120 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon on Monday afternoon. The targets included Radwan Force positions, rocket launching sites, weapon depots, weapon manufacturing plants and command centers as well as the intelligence division of Hezbollah.
An additional announcement by the IDF involved intelligence reports that Hezbollah has moved weapons and weapons manufacturing infrastructure away from the Bekaa Valley and into southern Beirut in recent months, apparently wishing to use the residents of the city as human shields to protect their military assets.
Amidst all these reports and announcements, the IDF also issued a rare statement denying that Esmail Qaani, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ extraterritorial Quds Force, was deliberately targeted by an IDF air strike in Beirut last Thursday. Qaani has not been in contact with the IRGC high command since that strike, and there are unconfirmed reports that he was in a bunker alongside Hashem Safieddine, the likely successor to Hezbollah's late chief Hassan Nasrallah, when it was hit by Israeli strikes.
The IDF said, however, that they were not aware of Qaani's possible presence in the bunker at the time of the strike.