An Israeli strike on south Lebanon killed a senior commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force, three security sources told Reuters.
The security sources identified him as Wissam al-Tawil, the deputy head of a unit within the Radwan force.
They said he and another Hezbollah fighter were killed when their car was hit in a strike on the Lebanese village of Majdal Selm.
“This is a very painful strike,” one of the security sources said. Another said: “Things will flare up now.”
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The killing of Hamas’s deputy leader in Beirut last week also raised fears of a wider conflagration.
Saleh al-Aruri, who was killed in a missile strike widely attributed to Israel, was the most high-profile Hamas figure to die during the war, in the first attack on Beirut since fighting began.
On Saturday, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell met a Hezbollah political official in Beirut as part of a push to avoid Lebanon being dragged into the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Israeli bombardment has killed more than 130 Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon since cross-border shelling began in the aftermath of Hamas’s attack on Israeli territory on 7 October.
Another 19 have been killed in Syria.
Hezbollah’s secretary-general Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel in two televised addresses last week not to launch a full-scale war on Lebanon.
“Whoever thinks of war with us – in one word, he will regret it,” Mr Nasrallah said.
