A top drone maker of the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah was killed by an Israeli drone this week, in a possible escalation of the ongoing war. The strike happened less than two weeks after Israel killed a senior Hamas leader in Beirut, Lebanon, sparking a rocket barrage from Hezbollah.
A drone strike killed Ali Hussein Barji in southern Lebanon Tuesday during a funeral of another Hezbollah leader killed by another Israeli strike. Last week, Israel killed Wissam al-Tawil, who was also the brother-in-law of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Israel accused Barji of being behind a number of drone attacks on Israel over the last three months.
Earlier this week, Hezbollah claimed to have struck an Israeli military base that houses much of the country’s early rocket warning system. Israeli officials confirmed that there was damage to the base caused by enemy fire.
Israel believed that Barji was involved in the operation against the military base.
The death in Lebanon also comes as Israel has allocated significant medical resources to its northern region in case of an escalation of fighting with Hezbollah. Thousands of Israeli citizens there have already been displaced since the start of the conflict with Hamas.
The Israeli Ministry of Health has reportedly placed Hospitals and Clinics across Northern Israel including Rambam Medical Center in the City of Haifa on High Alert in preparation to receive Thousands of possible Casualties.
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) January 9, 2024
Israel struck a number of other targets in Lebanon Tuesday, including against a unit launching drones. Hezbollah stated that four total members died in combat Tuesday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously stated that his country would go to war if Hezbollah does not stop firing missiles. Israel fought a war against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon in the summer of 2006.
Both Hamas and Hezbollah are backed by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Separately, a bombing last week killed more than 100 people at a memorial service for Qassem Soleimani. Soleimani was killed in an American airstrike directed by former President Donald Trump in 2020 after a deadly attack on U.S. forces in Iraq.
Soleimani had been the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, which Washington considers a terrorist organization and had organized bombing attacks against American soldiers.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the blasts.
