Israeli strike on Saida: Lebanese Army denies Israeli claims soldier killed was Hezbollah fighter

The Lebanese Army and Defense Minister Michel Menassa staunchly defended the troops on Tuesday and denied any connection to Hezbollah, after the Israeli army accused one of the three victims of the Israeli strike on a car in the Saida region of being both a soldier and a member of the party.

The Israeli allegations, which claimed that Ali Abdallah, one of the three men killed on Monday, was both a soldier and a Hezbollah fighter, are “false,” a source within the army told L’Orient-Le Jour in the morning.

“It is possible that the men accompanying the soldier were relatives or friends from his village,” clarified an army source.

This source also specified that the soldier belonged to the anti-tank regiment, and not to military intelligence, as Israel claimed.

In a brief statement, the army said Abdallah was a staff sergeant and that his funeral will be held on Wednesday in Houmin Tahta.

The army later published a second statement, in which it condemned “misleading” information spread by Tel Aviv “to sow doubt about the army's doctrine and the conduct of its soldiers.”

“The soldiers' commitment to the institution and to the nation is unshakable,” it added.

'A stab in the back' of the Lebanese Army

Menassa, for his part, denounced in a statement “local and foreign media [who] claim that soldiers have ties with parties.”

“These assertions are false and constitute a malicious attack against the army, its role, its sacrifices and its current and future missions,” the minister said.

“The soldiers of the Lebanese Army are loyal to the nation, to legitimacy and to the Lebanese flag. The persistent spread of these slanders and the questioning of the loyalty of the members of the military institution serve the enemies of Lebanon and constitute a stab in the back of the heroes of the army who defend the nation at the risk of their own lives,” the statement said.

The Israeli army’s Arabic spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, stated on X that Monday’s raid “eliminated three terrorist operatives, one of whom simultaneously served in a Lebanese Army intelligence unit and another who was part of an air defense unit [from Hezbollah] in the Saida area.”

He also emphasized that these men “were preparing terrorist activities against the Israeli army and were involved in attempts to rebuild military infrastructure in the Saida area, southern Lebanon.”

In addition to Abdallah, the victims had been identified the previous day as Hassan Issa and Mustafa Ballout.

Radio silence on Hezbollah's side

Hezbollah has not yet announced official funerals for the other two victims, nor confirmed that they were from its ranks.

On social media, a video circulating on the pages of southern Lebanese villages shows three young men in the same car, but it is unclear when the footage was taken.

Despite the cease-fire agreement reached on Nov. 27, 2024, Israel continues its near-daily attacks against Lebanon, with an uptick in strikes in recent months.

Its army continues to occupy at least five positions in the South, along the southern border.

Hezbollah claims to respect the cease-fire but refuses to disarm as long as Israeli attacks continue and the Lebanese Army is not sufficiently equipped to defend the country.

The latter has been tasked by the authorities with disarming the party, starting with the area south of the Litani, where Hezbollah claims it no longer has a “military presence.”

Israeli media have repeatedly accused the Lebanese Army in recent months of “dragging its feet” in disarming Hezbollah.

These accusations were echoed by the U.S. administration in November, when it canceled meetings with Army Commander Rodolph Haykal in Washington to protest the slow pace of disarmament and the terminology used by the army, whose statements refer to “the Israeli enemy.”

However, tensions have eased in recent weeks, with the announcement of a support conference for the army sponsored by Washington, Paris and Riyadh, while a new “mechanism” is under discussion to report on progress in dismantling Hezbollah’s arsenal.

Furthermore, the army had already denied, in early December, any link between its soldiers and the party, after an Iranian analyst claimed that “30 percent” of Lebanese military personnel were Hezbollah members.