Israeli Strike on Beirut Kills Hezbollah Chief of Staff Haytham Ali Tabatabai: Israeli Media

Hezbollah Chief of Staff Haytham Ali Tabtabai was killed in an Israeli strike on a southern suburb of Beirut on Sunday, according to Israeli media outlets. A senior Hezbollah commander was the target of a precision airstrike that Israel conducted in Beirut, an attack constituting the first to target Lebanon’s capital since June. 

It hit the very crowded Haret Hreik area in southern Beirut, leaving at least 21 injured and one dead, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. The strike significantly damaged several buildings and vehicles in the area, sending residents into a state of panic as people rushed out of their apartments.

Who Was Haytham Ali Tabtabai? 

According to the Times of Israel, Ali Tabtabai was born in 1968 in Beirut to a South Lebanese mother and an Iranian father. He spent his childhood in southern Lebanon and joined Hezbollah when he was just 12 years old. Israel had previously targeted him in 2015 during an operation in southern Syria that killed Jihad Mughniyeh, the son of senior Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh, who himself was assassinated in 2008. 

Tabatabai rose through the ranks in late 2024 after much of Hezbollah’s senior leadership was wiped out by the IDF. As the group’s de facto chief of staff, he holds the second-highest position after Secretary General Naim Qassem.

IDF confirmed about the strike

The IDF-issued statement identified the target as a “key Hezbollah terrorist,” and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed he had ordered the operation personally. Netanyahu identified the target as Ali Tabtabai, described as Hezbollah’s “chief of staff,” reportedly involved in rebuilding and rearming the Iran-aligned militant group. Netanyahu underlined that Israel is committed to blocking Hezbollah’s threat to its national security and repeated that the country would act resolutely against “terrorism” on a number of fronts.

This strike comes amid intensified Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon over the past weeks, aimed at blocking Hezbollah’s military resurgence following a US-backed ceasefire in 2024. While Hezbollah maintains that it has complied with border region restrictions and allowed the Lebanese army to deploy, Israel continues to pressure the group for security reasons.

Three missiles targeted the building

Residents said they heard the roar of warplanes before the explosion, and the blast sent debris scattering across streets in Haret Hreik. Three missiles targeted the building, shattering windows and damaging nearby buildings, according to the National News Agency (NNA). This marks the first operation in the southern suburbs of Beirut since June, when Israel struck a Hezbollah drone factory.

US officials confirmed that Washington was not notified before the strike but was immediately informed afterward. A senior US official said the United States had known “for days” about potential escalation in Lebanon, though details on timing were not disclosed.

The attack underlined the continued tension between Israel and Hezbollah; Netanyahu emphasized that Israel would do all in its power to ensure the militant grouping did not reconstitute itself. The strike comes after a similar attack on Aita al-Shaab, which killed one person, emphasizing the tenuous nature of this ceasefire, as well as ongoing volatility along the border separating Israel and Lebanon.