In a move which analysts and unnamed officials predict will lead to further escalation in southern Lebanon, Israel carried out an airstrike January 8 against the town of Khirbet Selem, assassinating Wissam Hassan Tawil, a senior Hezbollah commander.
Tawil, also known as al-Haj Jawad, was killed when his vehicle was hit by an Israeli drone attack. Hezbollah confirmed the death, calling him the highest-ranking figure to be killed since the new “war in the south” began.
Hezbollah issued a statement mourning Tawil’s loss, but at the same time downplayed the military significance of it, saying “the resistance is not a list of individuals that can be killed one by one.”
Tawil was a commander of Hezbollah’s Radwan special forces and acted as an adviser on military strategy in the south. However, while the Hezbollah expects to continue its fight against Israel relatively unaffected, his loss will be felt as a serious blow.
The drone strike comes just after a flurry of Hezbollah rocket fire badly damaged Israel’s Mt. Meron strategic airbase, a source of air control for northern Israel. Israeli officials may have launched the January 8 attack to show their ongoing ability to operate despite the Mt. Meron attack, although damage there was said to be “extensive.”
Israeli media said another Hezbollah fighter was killed alongside Tawil, although Lebanese state media reported he was traveling alone and that no other casualties were reported in the strike. A security source was reported as predicting “things will flare up now.”
The commander of the Radwan special forces, Hezbollah issued a statement mourning Tawil’s loss, but at the same time downplayed the military significance of it, saying “the resistance is not a list of individuals that can be killed one by one.”
Just like the killing machine that is the US will roll merrily along if Biden were offed.
Hezbollah is trying not to climb the escalation ladder.
They will act when it suits them-when Iran deploys its own nukes,or the West Bank explodes.
you know that Iran doesn’t have any nukes
you know that Iran doesn’t have any nukes
It is in the best interest of Hezbollah not to escalate. They build a nice “nest egg” of weapons, but it took years to build. Between what they will fire and what Israel will destroy it can takes years to rebuild.
How did Israel get the targeting information? A spy? A rival Hezbollah leader? Or electronic surveillance? Of course we will never know.
“[T]he resistance is not a list of individuals that can be killed one by one.”
That’s true. It’s always true of serious resistance movements and it has been unquestionably true of resistance to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians for a very long time. No one knows this better than the Israeli leaders who ordered this killing, the second assassination air strike in Lebanon in a week.
Israel isn’t trying to eliminate resistance; it knows moves like this encourage more resistance. Israel is deliberately attempting to provoke a wider war.
I must concur, D51. I hate to keep brining it up but… It actually is in the prophecies of Nostradamus.
“In a move which analysts and ‘unnamed officials’ predict will lead to further escalation in southern Lebanon…” I’m curious why not name the “unnamed officials?” …It’s not polite? …Okay, since everybody already knows I’m an a$$hole, was it Netanyahu?