Israel carried out an airstrike against the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on Wednesday, killing Mohammed Naameh Nasser, described as the head of the Aziz Unit. He would be the highest-ranking Hezbollah member killed in an attack in nearly a month.
After Nasser’s death, a video was released from 1999 when southern Lebanon was facing an Israeli occupation. The footage showed Nasser taking part in an operation against one of the Israeli military outposts.
The Aziz Unit is responsible for operations in one of the segments of the southern Lebanon border area. There are three such units, all of which have been engaged in tit-for-tat attacks against neighboring Israel.
Hezbollah responded to the death by firing an estimated 100 Katyusha rockets against the headquarters of Israel’s Air Defense and Missile Unit in the occupied Golan Heights. They also fired heavier Falaq rockets at the Kiryat Shmona barracks.
The attacks come amid growing concern that escalating attacks by both sides is leading to full-scale war along the border. The international community has been pushing for a diplomatic solution that would move Hezbollah away from the border in return for an end to Israeli airstrikes on the country.
Reports are that Israel has set the second half of July for the timing of a new offensive against Lebanon. Hezbollah has conditioned an end to their strikes on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
