Acknowledges Attack That Killed Senior Commander of Hezbollah's Elite Troops, Israeli Foreign Minister: Part of the War

Israeli Foreign Minister Katz. (Wikimedia Commons/Adi Cohen Zedek (Obviously))

JAKARTA - Foreign Minister Israel Katz said that Israel was behind the attack in southern Lebanon that killed Wissam al-Tawil, a commander of Radwan Hezbollah's elite forces.

"Regarding the attack in southern Lebanon, yes, we are indeed responsible for the killing of the commander of the Quds Force," Katz told Channel 14, which corrected him for calling the Quds Force and not the Radwan Force, reported by The Times of Israel, January 9.

"This is part of the war," said Foreign Minister Katz, who replaced Eli Cohen a few days ago.

So far, no Israeli official has announced that the Israel Defense Forces were behind the killing, although that is widely known to be the case.

Previously, the Hezbollah group on Monday said Israel had killed one of its top commanders, al-Tawil, in an airstrike in southern Lebanon, quoted by Al Jazeera.

It was the first time a senior Hezbollah commander was killed in three months of cross-border clashes with Israeli forces. Al-Tawil, 58, also known as "Jawad", is the deputy head of Radwan's elite army unit. He is the highest-ranking Hezbollah member killed since the Israel-Hamas war began.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported that the attack was carried out by an Israeli drone at around 10:15 a.m. on the road to al-Dabshah in Khirbet Selm Municipality, Bint Jbeil District, resulting in two deaths.

Hezbollah said he joined the group in 1989, before later taking part in several "qualitative" operations against Israeli forces during the occupation of southern Lebanon before 2000, suffering serious injuries in an attack in 1999.

According to Hezbollah, al-Tawil was also part of the operation that captured two Israeli soldiers in 2006. Israel retaliated by launching a full-scale offensive against Hezbollah in what became known as the Second Lebanon War in Israel and the July War in Lebanon.

Al-Tawil is also fighting in Syria, where the Lebanese group is fighting alongside government forces against the country's opposition.

Since October 7, Hezbollah said, he had led several attacks on Israeli army positions across the Lebanese border, "in support of the Palestinian people in Gaza and their honorable and courageous resistance".

To date, Hezbollah has lost more than 130 members as a result of Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon.

It is known that Israel usually prefers to maintain a policy of ambiguity regarding its alleged operations abroad.

The new foreign minister stated that Israel has not taken public responsibility for last week's attack that killed Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut.