Iran-backed Hezbollah suffered a major blow after an Israeli airstrike reportedly eliminated Wissam al-Tawil, one of the terrorist group’s leading operatives.
Al-Tawil, the 48-year-old terrorist who had a long history of staging attacks on Israel, was recently elevated to the position of the commander of the Radwan force, Hezbollah’s elite terror unit. His terrorist career was cut short on Monday when he was killed along with a band of Hezbollah jihadis nearly 4 miles from the Israeli border.
“Israel has killed a senior Hezbollah commander in one of the most significant assassinations since the war began,” The British newspaper Telegraph reported Tuesday. “Wissam Hassan al-Tawil, of the Iran-backed group’s elite Radwan Forces, was Hezbollah’s first senior military leader to be eliminated in three months of cross-border clashes with Israeli forces, adding to fears of a wider conflict in the region.”
Al-Tawil’s elimination is a personal blow to Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah. The slain terrorist was also Nasrallah’s brother-in-law, news reports suggest.
He “took part in the 2006 cross-border kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers that triggered the last war between Israel and Hezbollah,” the Associated Press reported, citing Lebanese official sources.
The killing of Hezbollah terror commander comes nearly a week after an alleged IDF airstrike in Lebanon eliminated Hamas’s deputy chief, Saleh al-Arouri, a key planner of the October 7 attacks.
Al-Tawil’s killing is a big setback to the Lebanon-based terrorist group, which has intensified rocket and artillery attacks into northern Israel, forcing tens of thousands of Israeli families to leave their homes.
“Wissam al-Tawil,” Maj. Gen. (res.) Tamir Hayman, Managing Director of Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), wrote on Twitter, “was one of the most important people in Hezbollah’s operations at the tactical level.”
“In the past, al-Tawil was the perfect operations officer. Whenever Hezbollah wanted to act against Israel (usually after an operative was killed), al-Tawil would be sent to carry out the special operation: anti-tank fire, infiltration, and so on. Al-Tawil was promoted recently and in practice became the most important person in the Radwan Force from an operational perspective, a kind of de facto commander,” Hayman added.
The IDF on Tuesday also eliminated a senior Hamas terror operative responsible for recent rocket attacks into northern Israel from Syria. “Today, we eliminated Hassan Akasha in Beit Jann, Syria. He was a key figure responsible for Hamas’ rocket launches from Syrian territory toward Israel’s Home Front in recent weeks,” IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a statement issued on Telegram.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military is continuing its ground operation in Gaza, killing terrorists and destroying Hamas’s infrastructure.
The focus of the ground offensive appears to be the southern Hamas stronghold of Khan Yunis, where Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar and other terrorist commanders are believed to be hiding.
“Over the past day, IDF troops expanded ground operations in Khan Yunis and conducted strikes in which approximately 40 terrorists were killed,” the IDF disclosed in a press release on Tuesday. “In addition, significant terror tunnel shafts were located, as well as a variety of weapons, including twelve AK-47 rifles, four loaded RPG launchers, dozens of grenades, cartridges, and military vests.”
“The Israeli Navy also struck military posts, storage facilities, and vessels used by Hamas’ naval forces,” the military added.
Israeli soldiers on Tuesday discovered weapons inside Gaza’s Islamic University, an institution with academic ties with prestigious European universities.
Noting the use of the university for Hamas’s terrorist activities, the Israeli TV channel i24NEWS reported:
According to the Israeli military, guided by the previously received intelligence, the IDF troops raided the Islamic University used as an element of Hamas’s “terror infrastructure.”Troops are said to have discovered weaponry hidden in the classrooms, including Kalashnikov rifles, cartridges, ammunition as well as Hamas flags and safes with “terrorist funds.”Another weapon warehouse was located in the vicinity of the university with 100 mortar bombs, ready-to-use charges, grenades, combat equipment and maps used by Hamas.https://twitter.com/manniefabian/status/1744735851677139272
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