The Israeli military claimed to have killed a Hezbollah navy commander in an airstrike in south Lebanon on Tuesday, and it accused the militant of violating a ceasefire agreement from November.
The Lebanese armed group’s naval unit commander, Khodr Said Hashem, was killed by the Israeli air force near the town of Qana, according to a military statement issued on Tuesday, March 4, 2025.
Hashem was accused of engaging in “activities (that) posed a threat to the State of Israel and its citizens and constituted a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”
He participated in “maritime smuggling operations” and was a member of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, according to the military.
Although Israel has continued to launch strikes on Lebanese soil since the peace deal on November 27 went into effect, it effectively put an end to over a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
The violence, which lasted two months and was started by Hezbollah in favour of its Palestinian affiliate Hamas, claimed almost 4,000 lives in Lebanon, according to officials.
There were 56 troops killed inside Lebanon and 78 people killed in Israel.
The UN reports that 60,000 people have been displaced in Israel and hundreds of thousands in Lebanon.
Israel missed a January deadline to evacuate its forces from Lebanon by February 18 as stipulated under the truce, but it has retained troops at five “strategic” locations.
Hezbollah was also obliged by the ceasefire to remove any surviving military installations in the south and retreat north of the Litani River, which is roughly 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the border.
Israel Katz, the defence minister, declared last week that Israeli forces remain in what he referred to as a “buffer zone” in south Lebanon indefinitely.
