Hassan Nasrallah's former body guard killed in an Israeli strike on Syria

Two people, including a former bodyguard of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, identified as "Hajj Abou Fadl Qarnabach," were killed on Tuesday in an Israeli strike targeting a Hezbollah vehicle on the Syrian side of the border with Lebanon, according to our correspondent in the South, Mountasser Abdallah, citing security sources.

A source close to the pro-Iranian group told AFP, under the condition of anonymity, that a former bodyguard of Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in the strike, identifying him as "Qarnabach." Hezbollah later confirmed in a statement the death of a fighter with the same last name, Yasser Nimr Qarnabach, from the village of Zawtar Sharqieh in South Lebanon. According to Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), cited by AFP, "at least two people were killed and a third injured following an Israeli drone strike on a Hezbollah car in the Jdeidet Yabous area." The car was targeted near a Syrian army checkpoint in the village of Sabboura, according to the UK-based NGO, which has a vast network of sources in the war-torn country.

Commenting on the strike, Charles Lister, director of the Syria program at the Middle East Institute, called it a "major blow" for Hezbollah. According to him, Qarnabach was "Hezbollah's head of weapons procurement from Syria and Iraq." "He was likely on his way back to Lebanon after Israel seized a newly arrived shipment of weapons from the port of Latakia overnight," he added.

Hezbollah's Response

In a statement released in the early evening, Hezbollah claimed to have targeted the headquarters of the 210th Division in the Golan at the Nafah military base with dozens of Katyusha rockets in retaliation for the strike.

Israel has previously carried out hundreds of strikes targeting President Bashar al-Assad's army and the pro-Iranian groups supporting him, such as Hezbollah, which is heavily deployed on both sides of the border. Israeli strikes have intensified since October 7. Since the beginning of the Gaza war, Israel has managed to eliminate, in addition to Hezbollah fighters, whose death toll so far exceeds 300, several military leaders of the party, including Wissam Tawil, Taleb Sami Abdallah, and Taleb Abdallah.

Additional reporting by Muntasser Abdallah.