The car hit by a drone strike on Friday morning near Saida in southern Lebanon. Photo shared by our correspondent Mountasser Abdallah.
On Friday, Israeli drone strikes on moving vehicles in southern Lebanon killed two, who the Israeli army claimed were "Hezbollah officials," according to L’Orient Today’s correspondent.
The first strike targeted a 4x4 vehicle on the Ghazieh highway, south of Saida. The car caught fire, and video footage showed fire trucks on the scene. The driver, identified by both Lebanese and Israeli sources as Mohammad Jaafar Mounah Abdallah, died from his injuries. According to L’Orient Today’s correspondent, he was a senior Hezbollah official.
Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee claimed in a post on X that Abdallah was involved in “terrorist activities against the state of Israel,” including managing Hezbollah’s communication infrastructure across Lebanon, particularly south of the Litani River.
Abdallah was from Khiam, a village in the Marjayoun district that saw intense fighting before the cease-fire on Nov. 27, 2024. According to the Janoubia news site and sources confirmed by L’Orient Today’s correspondent, Abdallah was the son of Mounah Abdallah, a former senior official in Hezbollah’s security apparatus. The father had reportedly been deployed to Iraq for security missions before being arrested by U.S. forces in Baghdad on March 1, 2004. He was released in 2008 in a prisoner swap brokered by then-Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
In the late afternoon, a second Israeli drone strike hit a vehicle on the road between Rmeish and Aita al-Shaab in the Bint Jbeil district, killing the driver. The Israeli military claimed the target was a “Hezbollah terrorist element who was about to carry out a terrorist activity in southern Lebanon,” with no further details.
The victim was a municipal police officer from Aita al-Shaab and a member of the Qassem family, according to L’Orient Today’s correspondent. He was reportedly returning from a funeral in the town. Sources said he was an only child.
Israeli forces continue to occupy five positions in southern Lebanon, despite the terms of the Nov. 27 cease-fire that required Israel to withdraw by Feb. 18.
Two Israeli strikes on Thursday night hit Aita al-Shaab. A missile launched from a helicopter struck a gas station in the village center, damaging the site, which has reportedly been targeted before. A second strike hit a hangar that had also previously been bombed.
After midnight, Israeli drones flew at low altitude over the Nabatieh and Jezzine regions. On Friday morning, another strike destroyed a container in Mhaibib, which had already been hit the night before.
On Thursday, Adraee also announced that Israel had killed Abdel Nabi Hijazi, described as the deputy chief of Hezbollah’s military outpost in Mhaibib. He said the strike took place in Blida, in the Marjayoun district.
