Mohammad Mahdi Ali Shahine, a presumed member of Hezbollah, was killed on Thursday, Feb. 27, in an Israeli drone strike in Hermel. (Photo obtained by L'Orient Today's correspondent in the region, Sarah Abdallah)
The Israeli army claimed Friday morning to have killed an important Hezbollah senior official, Mohammad Mahdi Ali Shahine, in a strike carried out the previous evening on Hermel.
Shahine allegedly was "involved in transactions ... for the purchase of weapons on the Syrian-Lebanese border since the cease-fire in southern Lebanon came into effect," according to a statement published on the X account of the Israeli army's Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee. He specified that the target was also "one of the key members of the Hezbollah unit responsible for the Bekaa region in Lebanon."
After flying over the Bekaa plain at a medium altitude, an Israeli drone fired two missiles Thursday at a pickup truck on a secondary road near the Red Crescent in Hermel, then a third missile when people began to gather, according to information from L'Orient Today's regional correspondent. According to an initial Health Ministry report released Thursday evening, the strike resulted in one death and one injury. According to information obtained by L'Orient Today's correspondent, the injured person is in critical condition.
Second deadly strike in two days
An Israeli army drone had targeted a car the day before on the Hosh al-Sayyed-Ali al-Qasr road, north of Hermel. The Israeli army spokesperson specified a few hours later that the target of this strike was Maher Ali Nasreddine, a leader of Hezbollah's "Unit 4400." This unit is reportedly responsible for "transferring weaponry and combat equipment from Iran and operates at the border between Syria and Lebanon." It allegedly "built numerous smuggling routes," according to the Israeli army. "Maher Ali Nasreddine played a key role in arms transfer operations and was personally involved in cooperation with traffickers," the statement added.
This strike also resulted in one injury.
Baalbeck-Hermel MP Ihab Hamadeh, a member of Hezbollah, strongly condemned the Israeli strike that targeted his constituency by stating it was an "overstepping of all lines."
"The enemy's persistence in its aggression against all sovereignty titles in Lebanon, most recently in Hermel, confronts us all with a new reality that the enemy is trying to impose," he said in a statement.