Hezbollah confirms 8 fighters, including senior commander, killed in Israeli strikes
The Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah has confirmed that eight of its resistance fighters, including senior commander Hussein Mohammed Yaghi, were killed in a series of Israeli airstrikes that targeted the Beqaa Valley in eastern Lebanon.
Two officials with the group said on Saturday that the eight members were killed in strikes near the village of Rayak in northeast Lebanon late on Friday. They spoke to Lebanese media on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about such matters.
One of the Hezbollah officials said that three of the dead were local commanders and identified them as Ali al-Moussawi, Mohammed al-Moussawi, and Hussein Yaghi.
Yaghi was the son of a prominent Hezbollah official and one of its founders, Mohammed Yaghi, who died in 2023. Mohammed Yaghi was also a close aide to the late Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who was assassinated in an Israeli airstrike in southern Beirut in September 2024.
Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health said on Saturday that Israeli strikes on eastern Lebanon killed 10 people and wounded 24, including three children.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that several members of Hezbollah’s missile unit, in three different command centers in the Baalbek area in Lebanon, were killed in the aerial raids.
The army added that the Hezbollah members killed were identified “as operating to accelerate readiness and force build-up processes, while planning fire attacks toward Israel.”
Ali Abdullah, executive director of Rayak Hospital, said the strike occurred after sunset, adding that they have received 10 bodies and 21 wounded.
He added that the dead included two non-Lebanese nationals — a Syrian man and an Ethiopian woman. The wounded included five Syrians and three Ethiopians.
At least nine people are killed and 25 others injured in a series of Israeli airstrikes targeting eastern Lebanon.
For his part, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun strongly condemned the Israeli raids in the Bekaa Valley, describing the continued attacks as “a hostile act aimed at thwarting the diplomatic efforts and endeavors undertaken by Lebanon with brotherly and friendly countries … to stabilize the situation and halt Israeli hostilities against Lebanon.”
He stressed that the raids constitute “a new violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty and a clear breach of international commitments,” as well as “a disregard for the will of the international community, particularly UN resolutions calling for full compliance with Resolution 1701 and its implementation in all its aspects.”
Aoun renewed his appeal to countries sponsoring regional stability in the region to “assume their responsibilities to immediately halt the attacks and exert pressure to ensure respect for international resolutions, to preserve Lebanon’s sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity and spare the region further escalation.”
Israeli breaches of the November 2024 ceasefire have resulted in the deaths and injuries of hundreds of Lebanese citizens. Israel persists in occupying five Lebanese highlands captured during the recent war, along with other regions of Lebanon it has controlled for many years.
In October 2023, Israel launched military attacks on Lebanon, which escalated into a full-blown war by September 2024, leading to over 4,000 fatalities and approximately 17,000 injuries.
Lebanese authorities have consistently called for pressure on Tel Aviv to stop its assaults and adhere to the ceasefire conditions. They are demanding the removal of Israeli troops from the territories seized in the last war.
