Israel says killed half of Hezbollah commanders in southern Lebanon

JERUSALEM

The Israeli army has killed half of Hezbollah commanders in southern Lebanon, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday.

“Half of the Hezbollah commanders in south Lebanon have been eliminated… and the other half hide and abandon south Lebanon to IDF (army) operations,” Gallant said after an assessment at the army’s Northern Command headquarters in northern Israel.

"From the military operational perspective this is a critical time," he added.

The Israeli minister said that Israel’s main goal in southern Lebanon is “to ensure that a different security situation prevails there.”

The Israeli army “is dealing with several alternatives in order to establish this matter, and the coming period will be decisive,” he added.

There has been no comment by Hezbollah on Gallant's claim.

Tensions have escalated along Lebanon’s border with Israel since last October, when the Israeli army launched a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 34,200 people following an attack by the Palestinian group Hamas.

Hezbollah and Israeli forces have engaged in intermittent exchanges of fire in the deadliest clashes since the two sides fought a full-scale war in 2006.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul