A senior Hezbollah commander has been killed in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon.
Mohammed Qassem Al-Shaer, a commander of Hezbollah鈥檚 elite Radwan Force, was killed in a strike on the village of Qaraoun in the western Beqaa district on Tuesday, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
The IDF said Al-Shaer had 鈥渁dvanced numerous terrorist activities against the state of Israel鈥� and his 鈥渆limination鈥� would impair the Iran-backed militant group鈥檚 ability to launch attacks against Israel from southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah confirmed Al-Shaer had been killed and said it responded to his killing by launching 鈥渄ozens鈥� of Katyusha rockets and several drones toward two locations in northern Israel.
The IDF said those attacks caused no casualties, with some of the 鈥減rojectiles鈥� being intercepted and others falling in an open area.
The Israeli military added that it had responded by striking Hezbollah launchers 鈥渋n the areas of Mansouri and At Tiri,鈥� which had been used in the attacks.
Earlier Tuesday, the Israeli Air Force said it had struck a Hezbollah military structure in the village of Rachaf in the Nabatieh governorate of southern Lebanon.
Lebanon鈥檚 Public Health Emergency Operations Center said the strike on Rachaf wounded 12 people.
This comes weeks after Israel said it had killed Hezbollah鈥檚 most senior military official, Fu鈥檃d Shukr, in a drone strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a populous neighborhood that is also the Iran-backed group鈥檚 stronghold.
Shukr was the most high-ranking Hezbollah official to have been assassinated since 2016, when Mustafa Badreddine, the group鈥檚 top commander at the time, was killed in Syria.
The hostilities in July raised the specter of a regional conflagration, prompting intense diplomatic efforts to de-escalate tensions.
There have been almost daily exchanges of fire across the Israel-Lebanon border since war broke out between Israel and Hamas in Gaza on October 7.
