Hezbollah shot the second man Haitham Ali TabatabaiNicknamed Abu Ali, and the four other militants killed by Israel on Sunday during their funeral south of Beirut. Israeli drones flew over Hezbollah’s stronghold at low altitude … It rose during a ceremony in which the head of the Executive Council of the pro-Iranian militia party, Ali Damoush, warned that “the Zionists should worry because they made a grave mistake. The martyrdom of Commander Abu Ali will not delay the resistance and it will not surrender.”
Damoush criticized the Lebanese government and said, “All previous concessions did not produce results. We are not interested in any proposal as long as the enemy does not respect the ceasefire.” Mahmoud Qamati, a senior leader in the group, said that the attack crossed a “red line” and that the group’s leadership was considering a response.
Hundreds participated in bidding farewell to the leader of the most important Shiite group assassinated by Israel since the ceasefire came into effect a year ago. Tabatabai has been part of Hezbollah since its founding in the 1980s and rose to the top of the movement after the strikes launched by Israel last year, which reached its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah.
He lived in the shadows, and his name was not known to the Lebanese, as is usual in the organization’s organizational structure, but after his assassination, the militia highlighted that he was one of the founders of the Radwan Force, an elite unit of Hezbollah, and responsible for operations in Yemen and Syria. The United States offered $5 million for his head, half the bounty it offered to Ahmed al-Sharaa, the current president of Syria, for whom no bounty has yet been assessed.
Hezbollah is in a very complicated situation because it has lost its ability to deter. Israel bombs the group’s sites and carries out targeted assassinations on a daily basis, but the Shiite group knows that if it responds, It could lead to a huge explosion. It has not yet responded to the enemy, and the attacks intensified until they reached Tabatabai. Hezbollah is at a crossroads, and the problem is that the final decision will be taken in Tehran and not in Beirut. After such a high-profile assassination, he could choose a measured response to save face without provoking a major conflict.
As happened last year, the Israelis once again demonstrated their ability to infiltrate the Shiite movement. The group, which for many years had an image of solidity and internal strength, has once again demonstrated that it has a huge internal security problem. Israel carried out a precise attack and killed the second man in the group when he was in an apartment in Haret Hreik, south of the capital. The shell fell on the third and fourth floors of a nine-story building.
US statement
Qamati, deputy head of Hezbollah’s political council, expressed his regret at “another violation of the ceasefire” and accused Israel of escalating the conflict “with the green light given by the United States.” From Washington, they responded that they did not participate in the attack, but they reminded that “the complete disarmament of Hezbollah is the only way for Lebanon to achieve lasting peace and stability.” Lebanese media indicated that Tabatabai leads the most extremist wing of Hezbollah, which refuses to accept disarmament and direct negotiations with the Israelis.
Joe Macron, researcher at Institute for Research and Studies on the Arab and Islamic Worlds“We see that the United States no longer contains Israel,” he declared on Al Jazeera. “We thought that the ceasefire in Gaza would stop Israel in Lebanon, but now we see a change: they are strengthening their role in Syria, Gaza and Lebanon… It is a trend.”
Benjamin Netanyahu made clear on Sunday that his country “will not allow Hezbollah to rebuild its strength,” and called on the Lebanese government to “fulfill its commitment to disarm” the pro-Iranian group. The Israeli Prime Minister is enforcing ceasefire agreements with more fire, a strategy that extends from Lebanon to Gaza, where bombings occur daily. The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, Fenol, has documented more than 10,000 Israeli ceasefire violations since the end of November 2024. The situation is similar in the Gaza Strip, where in the past 24 hours four Palestinians were killed due to Israeli attacks.