In retaliation to Iran-backed Hezbollah’s increased rocket attacks from southern Lebanon, Israeli military eliminated terror group’s regional rocket chief in a drone strike.
“The commander of Hezbollah’s rocket and missile unit in the terror group’s coastal division was killed in an airstrike Monday,” The Times of Israel reported Tuesday. “Qassem Saqlawi was targeted in a drone strike while driving in the Tyre area in southern Lebanon.”
The drone strike is part of IDF’s strategy to target Hezbollah’s terrorist leadership in the southern Lebanon. “The military says that more than 30 Hezbollah commanders have been killed in its strikes in southern Lebanon amid the war in the past seven months,” the news website added.
The slain terrorist was behind several rocket attacks into Israel since Hezbollah renewed hostilities in the wake of the October 7 massacre. “Saqlawi was responsible for planning and executing numerous rocket attacks against the Israeli home front. As part of his role, he promoted and planned rocket and anti-tank launches toward the State of Israel from the coastal sector in Lebanon,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a press release Tuesday.
Hezbollah admitted that Saqlawi and several other terrorists were killed in Israel strikes. The setback comes as Iran, Hezbollah’s main backer, lost its President Ebrahim Raisi, aka “Butcher of Tehran,” in a helicopter crash.
As the military operation in Hamas-held stronghold of Rafah entered its second week, the IDF is expanding its control over the city. The military was advancing “into Rafah, one area after another and gradually expanding,” the Israeli TV channel i24NEWS reported Tuesday.
Israeli ground troops, supported by the air force, were locating and destroying Hamas’s fighting capabilities and terrorist assets.
“IDF troops … continue operational activities in the area of Rafah,” the IDF said in a statement Tuesday. “IDF troops eliminated several terrorists in cooperation with the IAF and located rockets and additional military equipment in the area.”
The IDF has successfully evacuated close to a million civilians from Rafah, leaving between 300,000 and 400,000 still in Hamas controlled part of the city. “Israel’s military said (…) that more than 950,000 civilians in the city had relocated since it gave expanded evacuation orders,” The New York Times reported Tuesday. “A military spokesman said about 300,000 to 400,000 civilians remain there.”
The IDF was also operating in northern and central Gaza, where Hamas terror fighters have been trying to regroup since Israel withdrew ground troops in early April amid growing pressure from the Biden administration.
“IDF troops continue operational activities in Central Gaza. During the activity, the troops identified a terrorist cell approaching them. The troops directed an IAF aircraft that swiftly struck and eliminated the terrorists,” the IDF press statement on Tuesday added. “Over the past day, IAF fighter jets and additional aircraft struck and dismantled approximately 70 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip, including military compounds, weapon storage sites and warehouses, missile launchers, observation posts, terrorist cells, and additional terror infrastructure.”
The Israel military was also hitting Hamas terror targets in Jabaliya, northern Gaza. “IDF troops continue operational activities in the area of Jabaliya. Over the past day, the troops eliminated several terrorists. During one of the activities, a terrorist cell fired at IDF troops, who directed an IAF aircraft that struck and eliminated the cell,” the IDF disclosed.
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