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As Tensions Soar, Hezbollah Reduces Number of Operations against Israel 

Smoke billows from a site targeted by the Israeli military in the southern Lebanese border village of Kafr Kila on July 29, 2024. (AFP)
Smoke billows from a site targeted by the Israeli military in the southern Lebanese border village of Kafr Kila on July 29, 2024. (AFP)
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As Tensions Soar, Hezbollah Reduces Number of Operations against Israel 

Smoke billows from a site targeted by the Israeli military in the southern Lebanese border village of Kafr Kila on July 29, 2024. (AFP)
Smoke billows from a site targeted by the Israeli military in the southern Lebanese border village of Kafr Kila on July 29, 2024. (AFP)

Hezbollah reduced the number of its military operations against Israel on Sunday and Monday as tensions continued in wake of the strike that killed 12 people in the village of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights over the weekend.

Hezbollah has strongly denied its involvement in the attack. Israel, meanwhile, continued to make threats that it will strike Lebanon in retaliation.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Majdal Shams on Monday, vowing a strong response.

Offering his condolences to the families of the victims, he said: “These are our children. The state of Israel will not let this pass; it cannot.”

Some residents staged protests against his visit.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Hezbollah “will pay a price” for the attack. “We will let actions, not words, do the talking,” he added.

A military spokesman said the response will be “clear and forceful. Hezbollah will be targeted.”

“We insist on driving it away from our borders. This is our ultimate goal,” he added.

Field sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the intensity of the operations dropped noticeably over the past two days. Hezbollah declared on Sunday that it had carried out no more than two operations and only three on Monday.

The figures are much lower than what the border regions had grown accustomed to over the past two weeks where the party had staged an average of eight operations a day, they added.

The drop in attacks did not lead to a halt in Israeli operations. Israeli drones flew heavily at low and medium altitudes, reaching the regions of Nabatiyeh, Jezzine, Sidon and al-Zahrani, they noted.

Israel killed two Hezbollah members on Monday.

A drone strike targeted a car and motorcycle in the towns of Shakra and Mays al-Jabal. Two people were killed and four wounded, including a 12-year-old boy.

Hezbollah acknowledged in a statement the death of two members in the attack.

In the evening, a drone strike targeted a car in the town of Kounin near Bint Jbeil.

Israeli jets also struck Houla and Kfar Hamam and artillery hit the towns of Aitaroun, Mays al-Jabal, Kfar Kila and Deir Mimas.

Hezbollah later announced that it fired dozens of Katyusha rockets at the al-Baghdadi position in response to the Shakra attack.

It also fired rockets against Israeli soldiers in the Raheb area and a surveillance system that was recently set up in the Malikiya area.

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Head of ISIS in Iraq and Syria Has Been Killed, Iraqi Prime Minister Says

This handout picture released by the Iraqi Prime Minister's press office shows Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (R) meeting with Syria's interim Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani in Baghdad on March 14, 2025. (Iraqi Prime Minister’s Press Office / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Iraqi Prime Minister's press office shows Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (R) meeting with Syria's interim Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani in Baghdad on March 14, 2025. (Iraqi Prime Minister’s Press Office / AFP)
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Head of ISIS in Iraq and Syria Has Been Killed, Iraqi Prime Minister Says

This handout picture released by the Iraqi Prime Minister's press office shows Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (R) meeting with Syria's interim Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani in Baghdad on March 14, 2025. (Iraqi Prime Minister’s Press Office / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Iraqi Prime Minister's press office shows Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (R) meeting with Syria's interim Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani in Baghdad on March 14, 2025. (Iraqi Prime Minister’s Press Office / AFP)

The head of ISIS in Iraq and Syria has been killed in Iraq in an operation by members of the Iraqi national intelligence service along with US-led coalition forces, the Iraqi prime minister announced Friday.

“The Iraqis continue their impressive victories over the forces of darkness and terrorism,” Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said in a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Abdallah Maki Mosleh al-Rifai, or “Abu Khadija,” was “deputy caliph” of the militant group and as “one of the most dangerous terrorists in Iraq and the world," the statement said.

A security official said the operation was carried out by an airstrike in Anbar province, in western Iraq. A second official said the operation took place Thursday night but that al-Rifai's death was confirmed Friday. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.

The announcement came on the same day as the first visit by Syria’s top diplomat to Iraq, during which the two countries pledged to work together to combat ISIS.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Fouad Hussein said at a news conference that “there are common challenges facing Syrian and Iraqi society, and especially the terrorists of ISIS.” He said the officials had spoken “in detail about the movements of ISIS, whether on the Syrian-Iraqi border, inside Syria or inside Iraq” during the visit.

Hussein referred to an operations room formed by Syria, Iraq, Türkiye, Jordan and Lebanon at a recent meeting in Amman to confront ISIS, and said it would soon begin work.

The relationship between Iraq and Syria is somewhat fraught after the fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Al-Sudani came to power with the support of a coalition of Iran-backed factions, and Tehran was a major backer of Assad.

The current interim president of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, was previously known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani and fought as an al-Qaeda militant in Iraq after the US invasion of 2003, and later fought against Assad's government in Syria.

But Syrian interim Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani focused on the historic ties between the two countries.

“Throughout history, Baghdad and Damascus have been the capitals of the Arab and Islamic world, sharing knowledge, culture and economy,” he said.

Strengthening the partnership between the two countries “will not only benefit our peoples, but will also contribute to the stability of the region, making us less dependent on external powers and better able to determine our own destiny,” he said.

The operation and the visit come at a time when Iraqi officials are anxious about an ISIS resurgence in the wake of the fall of Assad in Syria.

While Syria’s new rulers have pursued ISIS cells since taking power, some fear a breakdown in overall security that could allow the group to stage a resurgence.

The US and Iraq announced an agreement last year to wind down the military mission in Iraq of an American-led coalition fighting the ISIS group by September 2025, with US forces departing some bases where they have stationed troops during a two-decade-long military presence in the country.

When the agreement was reached to end the coalition’s mission in Iraq, Iraqi political leaders said the threat of ISIS was under control and they no longer needed Washington’s help to beat back the remaining cells.

But the fall of Assad in December led some to reassess that stance, including members of the Coordination Framework, a coalition of mainly Shiite, Iran-allied political parties that brought al-Sudani to power in late 2022.