Israel-Lebanon conflict: IDF says key Hezbollah commander killed during air strike in Beirut

Israel on Tuesday claimed a key Hezbollah commander was killed during an air strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut.

The slain commander was identified as Ibrahim Muhammad al-Qubasi.

He was the commander of Hezbollah’s missile and rocket division.

IDF posted on X: “Ibrahim Muhammad Qabisi, the Commander of Hezbollah’s Missiles and Rockets Force, was eliminated by an IAF airstrike in Beirut.”

“Qabisi commanded several missile units within the Hezbollah terrorist organization, including the Precision Guided Missile Unit. Over the years and during the war, he was responsible for launching missiles toward Israeli civilians. He also served as a significant source of knowledge in the field of missiles and had close ties to senior military leaders in Hezbollah,” the IDF wrote on the platform.

IDF said Qabisi was eliminated alongside additional central commanders in Hezbollah’s Missiles and Rockets Force.

With the escalation of tension between Israel and Hezbollah in recent times, there are fears that the Middle East may witness full-scale war in the upcoming days.

As Lebanon mourns the victims of a wave of Israeli airstrikes believed to have left hundreds dead, UN humanitarians warned on Tuesday against a return to the “dark days of 2006” when full-scale war broke out, calling for an urgent de-escalation and the protection of civilians.

Speaking from Beirut in the aftermath of Lebanon’s “worst day in 18 years”, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) deputy representative in the country, Ettie Higgins, said that unless the violence stopped, the consequences could be “unconscionable”.

The wide-ranging Israeli strikes conducted on Monday in retaliation to attacks by the armed group Hezbollah killed at least 492 people, including 35 children and 58 women, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. Another 1,645 were also injured across the country.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres tweeted a key line from his speech to world leaders on Tuesday morning that Lebanon stood “on the brink.” The people of Lebanon and the world “cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza”, he said.

UN human rights office (OHCHR) spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani expressed alarm at the “sharp escalation” of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah and called on all parties “to immediately cease the violence and to ensure the protection of civilians”.

Rules of war reminder

Since the start of the war in Gaza last October, cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah has intensified, displacing tens of thousands of people in Israel and in southern Lebanon. The situation escalated further last week when dozens of people in Lebanon were killed and thousands were injured when pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah members exploded.
Over the weekend, Hezbollah reportedly launched 150 rockets into northern Israel.

“Any further escalation in this conflict will be absolutely catastrophic for all children in Lebanon, and especially families from towns and villages in the south and Bekaa, in eastern Lebanon” who have been forced to leave their homes, UNICEF’s Ms. Higgins insisted. She stressed that the newly displaced were in addition to the 112,000 people already uprooted since last October.