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Arab World

Israeli Airstrike Kills Senior Hezbollah Commander in Southern Lebanon, Official Says 

Smoke billows from Israeli bombardment in the Khiyam plains near the border with Israel in southern Lebanon on January 8, 2024 amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. (AFP)
Smoke billows from Israeli bombardment in the Khiyam plains near the border with Israel in southern Lebanon on January 8, 2024 amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. (AFP)
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Israeli Airstrike Kills Senior Hezbollah Commander in Southern Lebanon, Official Says 

Smoke billows from Israeli bombardment in the Khiyam plains near the border with Israel in southern Lebanon on January 8, 2024 amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. (AFP)
Smoke billows from Israeli bombardment in the Khiyam plains near the border with Israel in southern Lebanon on January 8, 2024 amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. (AFP)

Israel killed a top Hezbollah commander in a strike in south Lebanon on Monday, sources familiar with the group's operations said, inflicting a heavy blow after three months of hostilities at the Lebanese-Israeli frontier.

Wissam Tawil was a commander of Hezbollah's elite Radwan forces and the most senior Hezbollah officer killed so far in the conflict, a senior source in Lebanon said, adding he played a leading role in directing its operations in the south.

More than 130 Hezbollah fighters including Radwan members have been killed in hostilities since the group's Palestinian ally Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7, igniting a conflict that has rippled around the region.

It has marked the deadliest confrontation between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah since they went to war in 2006, with Hezbollah firing guided rockets and other weapons at Israeli positions and Israel launching air and artillery strikes.

Tens of thousands of people on both sides of the frontier have fled, and the fighting has raised concern of an even wider conflict.

Tawil and another Hezbollah fighter were killed when the car they were in was struck in the village of Majdal Selm, some 6 km (3.7 miles) from the border, three sources in Lebanon said.

There was no immediate comment from Israel.

Hezbollah circulated photographs of Tawil with leaders of the heavily armed, Shiite group including Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah and Imad Mughniyeh, its military commander who was killed in Syria in 2008.

Another photo showed him sitting next to the late leader of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by a US drone strike in Baghdad four years ago.

The senior source said Tawil's death marked a big blow given his experience including deployments with Hezbollah in Syria and Iraq.

Hezbollah says its current campaign against Israel aims to support Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which has been devastated by an Israeli offensive since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack. The hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel have largely been contained to areas near the Lebanese-Israeli border.

Tensions spiked higher last week when an Israeli strike killed deputy Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut's southern suburbs, an area controlled by Hezbollah. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its responsibility for that attack.

Hezbollah said on Saturday it had hit a key Israeli observation post with 62 rockets as a "preliminary response" to Arouri's killing.

Other members of the Radwan force killed during the hostilities include Abbas Raad, son of leading Hezbollah MP Mohammed Raad. He was killed in an Israeli strike in November.

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," he said.

On Sunday, Hezbollah deputy leader Naim Qassem said the group did not want to "initiate total war, but if Israel decides to wage total war on us then we in the field will respond with total war without hesitation and with all we have".

Nineteen Hezbollah fighters have been killed in Syria since the hostilities erupted.

The Hamas-Israel war has drawn in Iran-aligned groups across the region, with the Houthi militias in Yemen firing on ships in the Red Sea and launching missiles and drones at Israel, and Tehran-backed militias in Iraq attacking US forces in Iraq and Syria. 

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Arab World

Who Is Wassim al-Assad, Who Used Syrian Regime Influence to Lead Captagon Trade?

Wassim al-Assad appears in court. (Syrian Justice Ministry)
Wassim al-Assad appears in court. (Syrian Justice Ministry)
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Who Is Wassim al-Assad, Who Used Syrian Regime Influence to Lead Captagon Trade?

Wassim al-Assad appears in court. (Syrian Justice Ministry)
Wassim al-Assad appears in court. (Syrian Justice Ministry)

Wassim Badih al-Assad, a cousin of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, faces charges of forming and leading armed groups, suppressing civilians, involvement in wide-ranging abuses and illicit enrichment during the rule of the former regime.

He appeared in court on Wednesday to stand trial as Syria’s new rulers pursue transitional justice.

Syrian Justice Minister Mazhar al-Wais said: “The trial of Wassim al-Assad is only one stage in a comprehensive national process.”

In a post on X, he pledged that “justice will remain a firm approach, and state institutions will move with confidence and resolve toward building a state of law and institutions.”

Wassim al-Assad was born in Qardaha, in the countryside of Latakia, in 1980. His name has appeared on sanctions lists over his alleged role in drug smuggling and support for the former regime.

Syrian authorities arrested Wassim al-Assad in June 2025 during a security operation carried out by the General Intelligence Service in cooperation with units from the ministry.

He was lured from Lebanon to Syria in an intelligence operation and arrested in an ambush as part of a campaign to pursue people accused of committing crimes during the rule of the former regime.

Wassim al-Assad’s name emerged in Syria in the first years after the 2011 uprising against Bashar al-Assad, when he became known as one of the commanders of militias auxiliary to the former regime’s forces.

He led the “Military Security Shield” militia, later known as the “Assad Shield,” and also led and formed groups affiliated with the Baath Brigades and the National Defense militia.

Those groups were active mainly in the provinces of Latakia and Tartous, as well as the cities of Qardaha and Jableh. They pursued and arrested opponents of the Assad regime and fought as auxiliary forces alongside regime troops in other Syrian provinces.

Noah Zaiter (R) and Wassim al-Assad. (Facebook)

The groups were also active at ports and crossings on the border with Lebanon in the Tal Kalakh area of rural Homs, facilitating the smuggling of Captagon and fuel.

The political and security cover he enjoyed enabled him to use his influence to impose payments on merchants along the coast and run cross-border smuggling networks. The names of those militias were linked to killings, kidnappings, extortion and theft.

Wassim al-Assad did not hide his ties with drug traffickers in Lebanon. He appeared in photos on social media with notorious drug baron Noah Zaitar, who has been detained in Lebanon for drug and arms trafficking.

Unlike other leaders of militias auxiliary to the former regime’s forces, Wassim al-Assad flaunted his lavish lifestyle, cars and apartments in Latakia and Tartous in videos on social media. In those videos, he called for opponents of Bashar al-Assad to be stripped of Syrian nationality.

According to international reports, Wassim al-Assad oversaw Captagon shipments from manufacturing facilities in Syria to the Lebanese border, as well as to Gulf Arab states and Europe, all under the protection of security networks affiliated with the former regime.

In 2023, the US Treasury Department sanctioned Wassim al-Assad, citing his role in supporting the former regime through Captagon smuggling and the regional drug trade.

The European Union also listed him, along with other Assad family members, for his active participation in organized networks for the manufacture and export of drugs, and for illegal and criminal activities and cross-border money laundering.

In his last public security activity, Wassim al-Assad announced in early 2024 the formation of “special support and protection groups,” pledging to pay monthly salaries of $300 to volunteers from the coastal region who supported the former regime, in an attempt to counter the Deterrence of Aggression Operation led by now President Ahmed al-Sharaa, which succeeded in ousting Bashar al-Assad.

Arab World

Israeli Forces Kill Man in West Bank Raid, Palestinians Say

Israeli bulldozers guarded by Israeli soldiers demolish the home belonging to the Palestinian al-Atrash family, citing the lack of a building permit, in the village of Qilqes, a few kilometers from the Israeli settlement of Beit Hagai, just south of the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Hebron on June 23, 2026. (AFP)
Israeli bulldozers guarded by Israeli soldiers demolish the home belonging to the Palestinian al-Atrash family, citing the lack of a building permit, in the village of Qilqes, a few kilometers from the Israeli settlement of Beit Hagai, just south of the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Hebron on June 23, 2026. (AFP)
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Israeli Forces Kill Man in West Bank Raid, Palestinians Say

Israeli bulldozers guarded by Israeli soldiers demolish the home belonging to the Palestinian al-Atrash family, citing the lack of a building permit, in the village of Qilqes, a few kilometers from the Israeli settlement of Beit Hagai, just south of the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Hebron on June 23, 2026. (AFP)
Israeli bulldozers guarded by Israeli soldiers demolish the home belonging to the Palestinian al-Atrash family, citing the lack of a building permit, in the village of Qilqes, a few kilometers from the Israeli settlement of Beit Hagai, just south of the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Hebron on June 23, 2026. (AFP)

Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man during a house raid in a town in the northern occupied West Bank on Wednesday, the Palestinian health ministry, a paramedic and a local resident said.

The health ministry said that the Palestinian body in charge of coordinating with Israeli authorities had notified it of the death of 29-year-old Mohammed Zayed, who was "shot dead by the occupation (Israeli) forces in Yamun".

The ministry added that Israeli forces had kept Zayed's body.

The military told AFP it was looking into reports of the man's death.

Sanad Abu Toul, a local resident whose family owns the house raided by Israeli forces, said the raid occurred around 12:30 pm local time (0930 GMT) and Zayed was killed as he tried to escape the premises the army had surrounded.

"Zayed tried to flee the house, but the soldiers shot him at close range in the yard of the house, even though they could have arrested him," Abu Toul told AFP.

Murad Khamayseh, a Palestinian paramedic who was dispatched to the scene, told AFP that the Palestinian Red Crescent received a call about the raid around 1:00 pm local time, and sent teams who were blocked by the army from reaching the besieged house.

"About an hour and a half after we arrived, we heard gunfire, and then local residents found traces of blood on the ground in the yard of the house," said Khamayseh.

Violence has escalated in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.

Israeli soldiers or settlers have killed at least 1,083 Palestinians since then, including both gunmen and civilians, per an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry data, according to which 71 people were killed in 2026.

Official Israeli figures show at least 46 Israelis, both civilians and soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations in the same period.

Arab World

Israeli Defense Minister Says ‘No US Demand’ to Withdraw from Lebanon

A man walks past the rubble of buildings destroyed in previous Israeli airstrikes in the town of Nabatieh, southern Lebanon, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. (AP)
A man walks past the rubble of buildings destroyed in previous Israeli airstrikes in the town of Nabatieh, southern Lebanon, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. (AP)
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Israeli Defense Minister Says ‘No US Demand’ to Withdraw from Lebanon

A man walks past the rubble of buildings destroyed in previous Israeli airstrikes in the town of Nabatieh, southern Lebanon, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. (AP)
A man walks past the rubble of buildings destroyed in previous Israeli airstrikes in the town of Nabatieh, southern Lebanon, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. (AP)

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Wednesday that the United States has not demanded that Israel withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon, a condition set by Lebanon in ongoing ceasefire negotiations. 

"We have announced that in any case we are not withdrawing and, as of this moment -- and this is a diplomatic achievement -- there is no American demand for Israel to withdraw from Lebanon," Katz said in an interview at a convention of local leaders in Tel Aviv. 

When asked if the army would adhere to such a US request if it was made, Katz said he told US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US President Donald Trump that "we are there to protect the residents of the north" of Israel. 

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun rejected Israel's occupation of the south and foreign interference in his country's affairs -- an allusion to Hezbollah's backer Iran -- as a fifth round of Israel-Lebanon talks began in Washington on Tuesday. 

Tehran has also reiterated that peace in Lebanon was a fundamental pillar of reaching a definitive agreement with Washington for an overall end to the Middle East war. 

Washington and Tehran signed a memorandum of understanding last week aimed at reaching a permanent settlement between the two countries, following the war launched by the US and Israel on Iran on February 28. 

Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2 with rocket fire at Israel to avenge the killing of Iran's supreme leader in US-Israeli strikes. 

Israel responded with airstrikes and a ground offensive that Lebanon says have killed more than 4,100 people, which led to the occupation of a 10-kilometer (six-mile) security zone in southern Lebanon along the border with Israel. 

Israeli officials have insisted that the country will retain control of that zone. 

On Monday, Netanyahu said Israeli forces in Lebanon retained "full freedom of action to thwart any direct or developing threat". 

Israel and Lebanon are currently involved in a US-mediated round of talks in Washington to seek a diplomatic solution to the conflict and the disarmament of Hezbollah and the withdrawal of Israeli troops.