In recent months, and especially in recent days, Israel has dealt very heavy blows to Lebanese Hezbollah by eliminating several of its senior commanders, considerably weakening the military structure of the pro-Iranian Shiite movement.
Overview of the main Hezbollah figures targeted by Israel since the resumption of cross-border clashes almost a year ago, when Hezbollah opened a “support front” for Hamas in Gaza.
Fouad Chokr
The military leader of Hezbollah, killed on July 30 in a strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut, is one of the most important targets felled by an attack attributed to Israel. This shadowy man, one of the founders of Hezbollah and right-hand man of the movement’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, played “a leading role in Hezbollah’s operations against Israel from southern Lebanon”, according to a source close to the powerful Lebanese training.
According to Israel, Fouad Chokr was notably responsible for an attack which killed 12 children and adolescents on July 27 in the part of the Syrian Golan occupied and annexed by Israel. Hezbollah had denied any involvement, and has since promised to avenge the death of its military leader.
In a statement issued upon his death, Hezbollah hailed “a great figure of the resistance” and Hassan Nasrallah said they had been in daily contact since the opening of the front against Israel, after the unprecedented terrorist attack carried out on October 7 by its ally, Palestinian Hamas.
Ibrahim Aqil
Head of Hezbollah’s formidable Al-Radwan elite unit, which he founded in 2008, Ibrahim Aqil was killed on September 20 with 15 other members of this force in an Israeli strike on a building in the southern suburbs of Beirut. The strike left a total of 55 people dead, including civilians, according to the Lebanese authorities.
Considered a “terrorist” by the American State Department, Ibrahim Aqil was wanted by Washington for his involvement in the bloody anti-American attacks in Beirut in 1983.
Ali Karaké
Considered Hezbollah’s military number 3, Ali Karaké was targeted on September 23 by an Israeli strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut, according to a source close to the Lebanese group.
However, Hezbollah claimed a few hours later that this commander had escaped the strike. “Ali Karaké is well and has gone to a safe place,” the Shiite movement communicated.
Ibrahim Koubaissi
Ibrahim Koubaissi was killed on September 24 in an Israeli strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut. According to the Israeli army, Kobeissi, who commanded several units, including a precision-guided missile unit, was targeted along with other commanders of Hezbollah’s missile and rocket force.
“Kobeissi was an important source of missile knowledge and had close ties to senior Hezbollah military leaders,” according to the Israeli military.
Ibrahim Kobeissi joined the movement in 1982 and held several military positions, including that of head of the Badr unit, responsible for one of Hezbollah’s three areas of operations in southern Lebanon, according to the Islamist group.
Mohammed Srour
The head of Hezbollah’s drone unit, Mohammed Srour, was killed on September 26 in an Israeli strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Israel and the Lebanese Shiite movement announced. The commander was born in 1973 in the town of Aita al-Chaab in southern Lebanon, according to Hezbollah.
According to a source close to the Lebanese team, the mathematician was one of the movement’s senior commanders sent to Yemen to train the Houthi rebels, also supported by Iran. It was targeted by fighter planes, according to the Israeli army, with Lebanese authorities specifying that the strike killed two people and injured fifteen others.
Among other prominent Hezbollah figures, Wissam Tawil, a commander of the elite Al-Radwan unit, died in January in an Israeli strike on his vehicle in southern Lebanon. Two of the three commanders of the southern Lebanese sectors were also killed: Mohammed Nasser and Taleb Abdallah.