The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed the killing of the commander of the air force of the armed wing of the Shiite organization Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. The army press service reported this on Tuesday, January 9.
“Today, Tuesday, an IDF aircraft eliminated Ali Hussein Barji, commander of Hezbollah’s regional air force in southern Lebanon,” the IDF said in a statement on its Telegram channel.
The IDF also said that Ali led dozens of attacks on Israel using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), as well as an earlier attack on the headquarters of the Northern Command of the Israel Defense Forces.
Earlier, on January 8, the commander of an elite Hezbollah unit was killed in Lebanon. According to reports from Lebanon, the official was killed when a rocket hit the car in which he was traveling.
On January 6, it became known about IDF strikes on rear bases of the armed formations of the Shiite Hezbollah movement in southern Lebanon. It was noted that the areas of Kautaria es-Sayyad and al-Sharqiya, located between the cities of Saida and Nabatiyeh, were attacked. On the part of the Hezbollah movement, as a result of the attacks, the losses amounted to five fighters per day, Al Mayadeen TV channel specified.
The day before, it was reported that Israeli Air Force fighters launched missile attacks on the rear bases of Hezbollah armed forces in the area of the Lebanese city of Blida.
Earlier, on December 27, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said that the Israeli army forces located on the border with Lebanon are in a state of high combat readiness. A few days earlier, it was reported that the IDF's air defense system had intercepted six missiles fired from Lebanon. After this, a retaliatory strike was carried out on a Hezbollah military facility on Lebanese territory.
Earlier that month, the head of the Israeli National Security Council (NSC), Tzachi Hanegbi, said that Tel Aviv intends to take measures to oust Hezbollah from its border in the north of the country. He noted that the authorities are ready to discuss this problem with representatives of the movement through joint negotiations, but pointed out the low probability that Hezbollah will agree to this.
The situation in the Middle East escalated on the morning of October 7, when the Hamas movement subjected Israeli territory to massive rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, and also invaded the border areas in the south of the country and took hostages. That same day, Israel began retaliating against targets in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinians are seeking to return the borders between the two countries to the lines that existed before the 1967 Six-Day War. Palestine wants to create its own state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and make East Jerusalem its capital. Israel refuses the conditions set.
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