(July 8, 2025 / JNS) The Israeli military eliminated Ali Abd al-Hassan Haidar, a senior commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, during an airstrike in the Deir Kifa region of Southern Lebanon on Monday.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, Haidar was responsible for orchestrating several attacks against Israeli civilians and military personnel, including involvement in the so-called “Conquer the Galilee” plan—a plot by the Iranian terror proxy to infiltrate northern Israel, seize territory and capture hostages in the Galilee region.

The military further stated that in recent months, Haidar played a key role in efforts to reestablish Hezbollah’s operational infrastructure in Southern Lebanon, actions which Israel considers a direct breach of previous understandings between itself and Lebanon.

Approximately two hours after the strike on Haidar, the IDF reported the elimination of another Hezbollah operative in the Beit Lif area, also in Southern Lebanon.

“We have cut off the weapons transfer routes to Hezbollah from Iran through Syria,” Likud lawmaker Tally Gotliv told JNS. “Hezbollah is very weak. It has suffered intense attacks from Israel, with severe damage to its leadership, severe damage to its fighters, and continuous damage inflicted by our forces,” she said.

“Israel responds with the guarantee of fire, suppressing Hezbollah’s attempts to organize or act in Lebanon. Lebanon also understands that Hezbollah, as a terrorist organization, weakens the country and threatens the possibility of a normal, reasonable quality of life for the citizens of Lebanon,” she continued.

“Therefore, the head of the terrorist organization Hezbollah does not surprise me with the way he spoke and behaved. I respond by saying he can say whatever he wants, and Israel will respond with force, power, and decisiveness, as it has in recent months,” she added.

On Nov. 26, 2024, Jerusalem and Beirut signed a ceasefire deal aimed at ending more than a year of cross-border clashes between the IDF and Hezbollah. The Iranian-backed group began attacking the Jewish state in support of Hamas in the aftermath of the Gaza-based terror group’s attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Since the truce, Jerusalem has carried out frequent operations aimed at preventing Hezbollah from reestablishing its capabilities in Southern Lebanon in violation of the truce.

The IDF launched a wave of attacks on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon late on Sunday night, targeting multiple military sites and weapons storage facilities, the military stated.

Israel’s military said on Saturday that it had killed a terrorist in Hezbollah’s special operations Radwan Force in Aynata, southeastern Lebanon, as part of ongoing efforts to counter threats on the northern border.

In a separate operation, the IDF and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) confirmed that they killed Qasem Salah al-Husseini, a Lebanese terrorist affiliated with the Quds Force, the branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that specializes in unconventional warfare and military intelligence operations, during a strike on July 3 in Kafr Sil, south of Beirut.

U.S. envoy Thomas Barrack said on Monday in Beirut that Hezbollah “needs to see that there’s a future for them.”

Speaking to reporters after meeting Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Washington’s ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria was quoted by AFP as saying, “Hezbollah is a political party. It also has a militant aspect to it. Hezbollah needs to see that there’s a future for them, that the road is not harnessed solely against them, and that there’s an intersection of peace and prosperity for them also.”

Hezbollah is designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the U.S. State Department.

A State Department official told JNS on Tuesday that “our position has not changed—[Hezbollah] is a designated terrorist organization, and we do not distinguish between its political or armed wings.”

“As Ambassador Barrack said while in Beirut, Lebanon must utilize this moment to make progress, and that includes progress on disarming” the terrorist group, the official added.

Barrack’s comments were made in the context of a roadmap for Hezbollah’s disarmament, which he delivered to the Lebanese government on behalf of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“I’m unbelievably satisfied with the response,” Barrack said at the press conference following his meeting with Aoun. “It’s thoughtful, it’s considered. We’re creating a go-forward plan. To create that, we need dialogue. What the government gave us was something spectacular in a very short period of time.”

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