Who Were the 7 High-Ranking Hezbollah Officials Killed over the Past Week?

In just over a week, intensified Israeli strikes in Lebanon killed seven high-ranking commanders and officials from the Hezbollah militant group, including the group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
The move left Lebanon and much of the Mideast in shock as Israeli officials celebrated major military and intelligence breakthroughs.
Hezbollah had opened a front to support its ally Hamas in the Gaza Strip a day after the Palestinian group's surprise attack into southern Israel, The Associated Press said.
The recent strikes in Lebanon and the assassination of Nasrallah are a significant escalation in the war in the Middle East, this time between Israel and Hezbollah.
Lebanon's most powerful military and political force now finds itself trying to recuperate from severe blows, having lost key members who have been part of Hezbollah since its establishment in the early 1980s.
Chief among them was Nasrallah, who was killed in a series of airstrikes that leveled several buildings in southern Beirut. Others were lesser-known in the outside world, but still key to Hezbollah’s operations.
Hassan Nasrallah
Since 1992, Nasrallah had led the group through several wars with Israel, and oversaw the party's transformation into a powerful player in Lebanon. Hezbollah entered Lebanon's political arena while also taking part in regional conflicts that made it the most powerful paramilitary force. After Syria's uprising in 2011 spiraled into civil war, Hezbollah played a pivotal role in keeping Syrian President Bashar Assad in power. Under Nasrallah, Hezbollah also helped develop the capabilities of fellow Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq and Yemen.
Nasrallah is a divisive figure in Lebanon, with his supporters hailing him for ending Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon in 2000, and his opponents decrying him for the group's weapons stockpile and making unilateral decisions that they say serves an agenda for Tehran and allies.
Nabil Kaouk
Kaouk, who was killed in an airstrike Saturday, was the deputy head of Hezbollah’s Central Council. He joined the militant group in its early days in the 1980s. Kaouk also served as Hezbollah’s military commander in south Lebanon from 1995 until 2010. He made several media appearances and gave speeches to supporters, including in funerals for killed Hezbollah militants. He had been seen as a potential successor to Nasrallah.
Ibrahim Akil
Akil was a top commander and led Hezbollah's elite Radwan Forces, which Israel has been trying to push further away from its border with Lebanon. He was also a member of its highest military body, the Jihad Council, and for years had been on the United States' wanted list. The US State Department says Akil was part of the group that carried out the 1983 bombing of the US Embassy in Beirut and orchestrated the taking of German and American hostages.
Ahmad Wehbe
Wehbe was a commander of the Radwan Forces and played a crucial role in developing the group since its formation almost two decades ago. He was killed alongside Akil in an airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs that struck and leveled a building.
Ali Karaki
Karaki led Hezbollah's southern front, playing a key role in the ongoing conflict. The US described him as a significant figure in the militant group's leadership. Little is known about Karaki, who was killed alongside Nasrallah.
Mohammad Surour
Surour was the head of Hezbollah's drone unit, which was used for the first time in this current conflict with Israel. Under his leadership, Hezbollah launched exploding and reconnaissance drones deep into Israel, penetrating its defense systems which had mostly focused on the group's rockets and missiles.
Ibrahim Kobeissi
Kobeissi led Hezbollah's missile unit. The Israeli military says Kobeissi planned the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli soldiers at the northern border in 2000, whose bodies were returned in a prisoner swap with Hezbollah four years later.
Other senior commanders killed in action
Even in the months before the recent escalation of the war with Hezbollah, Israel's military had targeted top commanders, most notably Fuad Shukr in late July, hours before an explosion in Iran widely blamed on Israel killed the leader of the Palestinian Hamas militant group Ismail Haniyeh. The US accuses Fuad Shukr of orchestrating the 1983 bombing in Beirut that killed 241 American servicemen.
Leaders of key units in the south, Jawad Tawil, Taleb Abdullah, and Mohammad Nasser, who over several decades became instrumental members of Hezbollah’s military activity were all assassinated.
Who is left? Nasrallah’s second-in-command Naim Kassem is the most senior member of the organization. Kassem has been Hezbollah’s deputy leader since 1991, and is among its founding members. On several occasions, local news networks were quick to assume that an Israeli strike in southern Beirut may have targeted Kassem.
Kassem is the only top official of the militant group who has conducted interviews with local and international media in the ongoing conflict.
The deputy leader appears to be involved in various aspects of the militant group, both in top political and security matters, but also in matters related to Hezbollah’s theocratic and charity initiatives to its community in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, Hashim Safieddine who heads Hezbollah’s central council, is tipped to be Nasrallah’s successor. Safieddine is a cousin of the late Hezbollah leader, and his son is married to the daughter of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was slain in a US drone strike in 2020. Like Nasrallah, Safieddine joined Hezbollah early on and similarly wears a black turban.
Talal Hamieh and Abu Ali Reda are the two remaining top commanders from Hezbollah who are alive and apparently on the Israeli military’s crosshairs.

Israel warned Iran on Monday that nowhere in the Middle East was beyond its reach and hinted at a land invasion of Lebanon after assassinating the leader of the Tehran-backed Hezbollah group, one of its biggest adversaries, in a Beirut suburb last week.

"There is nowhere we will not go to protect our people and protect our country," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a three-minute video clip in English that he addressed to the Iranian people.

Friday's assassination of Nasrallah - the most powerful leader in Tehran's "Axis of Resistance" against Israeli and US interests in the Middle East - was one of the heaviest blows in decades to both Hezbollah and Iran.

After two weeks of intensive airstrikes and a string of assassinations of Hezbollah commanders, Israel, which has been training its troops for a ground invasion, indicated that a land invasion was an option in Lebanon.

Speaking to troops deployed along Israel's northern border, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel would do whatever it takes to ensure the return of citizens who have fled Hezbollah rockets during nearly a year of border warfare.

"We will use all the means that may be required – your forces, other forces, from the air, from the sea, and on land. Good luck," said Gallant, who was briefed by commanders.

"The elimination of Nasrallah is an important step, but it is not the final one. In order to ensure the return of Israel’s northern communities, we will employ all of our capabilities, and this includes you."

The Washington Post cited an unidentified US official as saying Israel had already told the US it was planning a ground operation that may start imminently.

The operation would be smaller than Israel's 2006 war against Hezbollah and focus on security for border communities, the official said.

Asked about the reports, US President Joe Biden, who has so far had little success urging Israel to rein in its campaigns, called for a ceasefire, telling reporters: "I'm comfortable with them stopping."

The Pentagon referred reporters to Israel for questions on any land offensive.

Who Were the 7 High-Ranking Hezbollah Officials Killed over the Past Week?