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A senior commander of Hezbollah was killed in the April 1 Israeli strike on the group’s stronghold in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, known as Dahiyah.
Citing a source close to Hezbollah, AFP was the first to report that commander Hassan Bdair was the target of the strike, describing him as “Hezbollah’s deputy head for the Palestinian file” who was struck when he was “at home with his family.”
The death of Bdair was later confirmed by the Israeli Defense Forces, the Shin Bet security agency and the Mossad intelligence service in a joint statement.
Badir was a member of Hezbollah’s Unit 3900 and of the elite Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the statement said, adding that the slain commander was recently operating in coordination with Hamas and directing members of the Palestinian group to carry out a “significant and imminent terror attack against Israeli civilians.”
The statement claimed that the strike was carried out because the attack Bdair was planning was considered to be “imminent.”
According to Lebanon’s health ministry, four people were killed and seven wounded in the strike on Dahiyah. One of those killed was later identified by Hezbollah as Bdair’s son, Ali, who was also apparently a member of the group, although his position remains unclear.
An undated photo showing Badair with former Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani and deputy commander of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who were assassinated together by the United States some five years ago.
Speaking to journalists near the strike site, Hezbollah lawmaker Ibrahim Musawi said Lebanese authorities must “act with the highest level of effectiveness, make the international community bear its responsibility, and take the highest level of measures to guarantee the safety of the Lebanese.”
“What happened was a very big attack,” he added.
The IDF halted strikes against Beirut after the U.S.-brokered ceasefire entered into effect on November 27, but continued to target the group in other parts of Lebanon. It also continues to deploy troops at five strategic posts in the south of the country.
Israel targeted Beirut on March 27 for the first time since the start of the ceasefire. The strike was carried out in response to the firing of several rockets at northern Israel from southern Lebanon. No casualties were reported at the time. Hezbollah denied responsibility for the attack at the time.
Following the second strike, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said that Lebanon must crack down on “terrorist groups” in its country and prevent future attacks against Israel.
“We expect Lebanon to take action to uproot terrorist organizations acting within its borders against Israel,” Sa’ar said at a press conference for foreign media. “What we saw here is cooperation between Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas on the soil of Lebanon in order to initiate terrorist attacks against Israelis.”
Meanwhile, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said that the latest strike on Beirut was a “dangerous warning” that signals premeditated intentions against Lebanon.
In a statement posted to the X social network, the president vowed to protect Lebanon’s sovereignty from foreign threats, “or from infiltrators within, who give additional pretext for aggression.”
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam also claimed in a statement issued by his office that the strike on south Beirut was a “clear breach” of the ceasefire.
The primer condemned the strike as “a clear breach of the arrangements of the cessation of hostilities” and a “flagrant violation of United Nations Resolution 1701,” a Security Council decision that ended a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah and served as the foundation of the current ceasefire.
From its side, the U.S. backed the deadly strike on Beirut. A State Department spokesperson said in an email to Reuters that Washington supported the Israeli attack, saying “hostilities have resumed because terrorists launched rockets into Israel from Lebanon.”
Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem warned in a recent speech that if Israel continues to carry out strikes in Lebanon, and the Lebanese government does not act to stop it, then the group will take matters into its own hands. However, it is highly unlikely that the group will respond to the assassination of Bdair.
With no reaction from Hezbollah, Israel will likely expand its operations in Lebanon even further. In fact, the Israeli military could go as far as renewing the war on Lebanon, as it recently did in the Gaza Strip where a U.S.-brokered ceasefire was also in place.
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excuse my mental illness —senility has made me bitter delusional
that sounds like the perfect skillset needed to be hired in the netanyahu, starmer, macron and biden regimes
kill 1, 100 pop up to take his place. good luck schlomo
hezbollah must aim broader and include the high ranking jews plus the open market places, cinemas, fotballgames and jews in general to cause unrest and commotion among the jews and in the jewish societies!,
shlomo is long overdue for a good dose of his own medicine.
but the shlomo mind set will never think it could possibly happen to them . blow back and repercussions are words that do not exist in the satanic religion
hezbollah , always the perfect excuse for israeli genocidal land grab tactics . i have no idea how many fronts the us / israel coalition can maintain . planes and bombs can terrorize but do not hold land . how many mercs is israel hiring with the americans money ?
a “significant and imminent terror attack against israeli civilians.”
that is the zionist word vs the only fact: they bombed beirut before anything could be done by the hezbollah.