BEIRUT (Reuters) -Hundreds gathered in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Monday to mourn Hezbollah’s top military commander Haytham Ali Tabtabai and four other fighters from the Lebanese group killed in an Israeli strike on the city’s outskirts the previous day.
The targeted assassination by Israel – a type of operation that had become rarer since a ceasefire was agreed last year – came a day after Lebanon marked its Independence Day and deepened fears of a renewed Israeli escalation.
As the mass funeral snaked its way through neighbourhoods in the Lebanese capital’s southern suburbs on Monday, chants rang out against Israel and the United States. Both countries have been pressuring Lebanon to move faster to disarm Hezbollah, in line with the 2024 ceasefire agreement.
“We will not leave our weapons, we will not leave our land!” the mourners chanted. Top Hezbollah political officials attended the funeral in person but it was unclear if any military officials were present.
ISRAEL TARGETS HEZBOLLAH’S NEXT GENERATION
The November 2024 U.S.-brokered ceasefire was meant to end a year of fighting between Hezbollah and the Israeli military, triggered by Hezbollah’s rocket fire on Israeli posts a day after the October 7, 2023 attack by its Palestinian ally Hamas.
During that war, Israel killed Hezbollah’s then-leader Hassan Nasrallah, his expected successor and much of the group’s top military brass.
Tabtabai, 57, rose through the ranks swiftly to fill roles left by slain commanders, according to the Israeli military and a Lebanese security source. After the truce, he was appointed the group’s top military official and sat on its Jihad Council, the body responsible for military operations.
A Lebanese security source said Israel now appeared to be targeting the group’s “next generation” after having killed most of the group’s founding leadership.
“Israel is peeling them off layer by layer,” said a Western diplomat who works on Lebanon.
ISRAEL KEEPS UP SURVEILLANCE
Israel has sustained near-daily strikes on Lebanon since the truce, targeting what it says are Hezbollah arms depots, fighters and efforts by the group to rebuild. It has ratcheted up the strikes in recent weeks.
“Anyone who raises his hand against Israel — his hand will be cut off,” said Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz. “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I are determined to continue the policy of maximum enforcement in Lebanon and everywhere.”
Israel has also continued to gather intelligence on Hezbollah’s activities using surveillance drones, a Lebanese security source said. On Monday, Israeli drones flew over Beirut, Lebanon’s south and its eastern Bekaa Valley, according to the source.
Israel’s advanced capabilities have worried Hezbollah’s supporters.
Malek Ayoub, a retired military analyst, told Hezbollah’s Al Manar television station on Monday that Israel could be using facial recognition technology to identify Hezbollah figures from the station’s coverage of Tabtabai’s funeral.
“Artificial intelligence can identify any of those faces to build Israel’s bank of targets,” Ayoub said.
(Reporting by Beirut bureau; Writing by Maya Gebeily; Editing by Aidan Lewis)
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