Israel says top Hezbollah commander Abu Ali Rida killed in Lebanon strike

Smoke rises after a recent Israeli airstrike on Southern Lebanon. File
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

The Israeli military said on Monday (November 4, 2024) it had killed a top Hezbollah commander it accused of overseeing rocket and anti-tank missile attacks against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon.

“Abu Ali Rida, the Hezbollah commander of the Baraachit area in southern Lebanon, was “eliminated” in an air strike,” the military said, without specifying when he was killed.

Rida “was responsible for planning and executing rocket and anti-tank missile attacks on IDF (military) troops and oversaw the terrorist activities of Hezbollah operatives in the area”, the military said in a statement.

Israel has continued to pound Hezbollah targets in Lebanon since the war between the two sides broke out in late September.

In recent weeks, Israel has killed several of the movement’s militant commanders and top leaders, including former chief Hassan Nasrallah.

The war began after nearly a year of cross-border skirmishes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, with the Lebanese group firing rockets into northern Israel almost daily in support of its ally in Gaza, Hamas.

Israel is fighting its deadliest war in Gaza against Hamas after the Palestinian militant group launched an attack on southern Israel on October 7 last year.