Another Hezbollah commander killed in Israeli strike on Beirut as PM Netanyahu dismisses a US-backed truce

In a major setback to Hezbollah, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) claimed that they killed Muhammad Hussein Srour, the head of Hezbollah's Aerial Command, during an airstrike in Beirut on Sep 26 amid the ongoing conflict with the Iran-backed militant group.

Srour’s killing comes barely three days after Ibrahim Muhammad Qabisi, a top commander with Hezbollah’s missile and rocket unit, was killed along with his two aides in an Israeli strike in Beirut on Sep 24. The escalating conflict between Hezbollah and Israel has claimed hundreds of lives including children and women in recent days while forcing thousands in the south of Lebanon to flee for the safety of their lives.

Meanwhile, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sep 26 dismissed a US-backed push for a 21-day cease-fire with Hezbollah in Lebanon and vowed to continue fighting, even as Joe Biden administration officials complained that Israel was fully informed of the truce proposal and indicated Netanyahu had agreed to it.

After arriving in New York for a speech to the U.N. General Assembly on Sep 27, the Israeli leader told reporters, “The policy is clear: We will continue striking Hezbollah with full force — we will not stop until we achieve all of our objectives.”

Earlier, Netanyahu’s office refuted reports that Israel had eased up on fighting in Lebanon. Pertinently the truce-proposal, which does not directly include Hezbollah as a signatory, came after Israel recently said it was preparing for a potential ground incursion into Lebanon.

A significant escalation in the ongoing conflict between Hezbollah and Israel occurred when Israel unleashed pager explosions targeting Hezbollah’s communication devices in Lebanon on Sep 18 and 19. This was followed by almost daily Israeli airstrikes that led to the killings of a few senior Hezbollah commanders and hundreds of civilians.

Notably, in its biggest aerial offensive against Hezbollah from Sep 23 through 24 in southern Lebanon Israeli strikes killed over 500 people including children and women. The offensive forced thousands in the south of Lebanon to flee the escalating violence.

As of Sep 26, at least 620 people have been killed and over 1,800 people wounded in back-to-back Israeli aerial strikes in Lebanon, according to media reports.

Announcing Srour’s killing, IDF posted on X. “Eliminated: Commander of Hezbollah's Aerial Command, Muhammad Hussein Srour, in a precise IAF strike in Beirut.”

“Srour advanced and directed numerous aerial terrorist attacks aimed at Israeli civilians. During the "Iron Swords" war, he executed several terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and explosive devices,” it stated further.

In recent years, according to IDF, Srour was reportedly at the forefront of a manufacturing initiative for UAVs in southern Lebanon, establishing sites for both UAV production and intelligence gathering.

Notably, these sites were strategically located near civilian infrastructure in Beirut and southern Lebanon, raising concerns about the potential risks to civilians, according to IDF.

Meanwhile, Lebanon’s Health Ministry in a statement said that two people were killed and 15 injured in the strike in Beirut suburbs on Sep 26. Lebanese civil defense said search-and-rescue operations were continuing at the site of the strike, which it said targeted a residential building.

The IDF in a statement on Sep 26 said that the targets of the overnight attacks included militants’ weapons and storage facilities. The Israeli air force also carried out strikes on infrastructure along the Syria-Lebanon border “used by Hezbollah to transfer weapons from Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon,” the military said.

“We are continuing our sequence of operations — eliminating Hezbollah terrorists, dismantling Hezbollah’s offensive infrastructure, and destroying rockets and missiles,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in a post on X.

Srour's served as the commander of Hezbollah's surface-to-air missile unit and led the "Aziz" Unit of the Radwan Force- Hezbollah's special operation forces unit.

Also, he was known to be an emissary for Hezbollah to Yemen, working closely with the Houthi terrorist regime’s Aerial Command. The Houthis aim to govern all of Yemen and support external movements against the United States, Israel, and Saudi Arabia.