The aftermath of an Israeli airstrike on the Dahieh district in south Beirut, Lebanon, October 8, 2024. Israel Defense Forces claimed its warplanes had killed Suhail Hussein Husseini, the military commander of Hezbollah’s headquarters in the Lebanese capital. Photo by Wael Hamzeh/EPA-EFE
The military commander of Hezbollah’s headquarters in Beirut, Suhail Hussein Husseini, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Lebanese capital, the Israeli military said Tuesday.
The senior figure in Hezbollah’s Jihad Council, which is in charge of military operations, died in a “precision” strike carried out by Air Force fighter jets under the direction of Israel’s Intelligence Division on Monday, Israel Defense Forces said in a post on X. Advertisement
The headquarters that Husseini commanded, the IDF said, was in charge of Hezbollah logistics and managing the budgets of its different units from where Husseini coordinated the flow of arms from Iran and internal weapons R&D.
“Husseini was a partner in the weapons transfer agreements between Iran and Hezbollah and is responsible for the distribution of the smuggled weapons between the various units in Hezbollah, in terms of transportation and resource allocation. Advertisement
“The headquarters structure also contains Hezbollah’s research and development unit, a unit engaged in the production of precision guided-missiles, and in the logistical field of storing and transporting weapons within Lebanon,” said the IDF.
Further blasts were reported in Beirut overnight with Lebanese media saying there were at least 10 air strikes on the southern suburb of Dahieh, which is seen as a stronghold of Hezbollah, with the airstrikes continuing into Tuesday.
Hezbollah responded by mounting the heaviest bombardment of the northern Israeli port city of Haifa so far, unleashing more than 100 rockets within the space of a half-hour Tuesday lunchtime.
The IDF said most were intercepted but some rockets penetrated its air defenses, falling in the city and causing damage to homes.
Police reported damage in the northern Haifa suburbs of Kiryat Yam and Kiryat Motzkin and a woman in her 70s was injured after being struck in the arm by shrapnel. She was being treated in the hospital where medics described her condition as “moderate.”
Earlier, Hezbollah deputy leader Naim Qassem went on television acknowledging Hezbollah had suffered recent “painful blows” at the hands of Israel but insisted that the group’s capabilities had not been degraded. Advertisement
“Our resources and capabilities remain in good shape. Our command and control is solid. Look at how our operations have increased in the last few days. The longer the war goes on, the deeper Israel will find itself in trouble.”
He also claimed Hezbollah had recovered from the loss of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut on Sept. 27.
“We are now over the painful strikes. All positions have been filled.”
Israeli ground operations in Gaza continued into Tuesday with the IDF saying its 162nd Division killed about 20 Hamas operatives in airstrikes and close hand-to-hand combat in the Jabalia area, north of Gaza City, in the past 24 hours.
“The forces of the 401st Brigade Combat Team destroyed a weapons warehouse and found many weapons including grenades and Kalashnikov-type weapons,” the IDF said in a social media update.
It also announced two joint IDF-Israel Security Agency operations in the past week had killed three Hamas members whom it said took part in the Oct. 7 attacks and were engaged in planning more attacks.
The first was killed in a strike on a school in Gaza City on Sept. 30 which the IDF said Hamas was using as a command and control center and the other two were killed the next day in a separate operation in Rafah in the south. Advertisement
