Israel Takes Out Hezbollah Drone Leader After IDF Base Hit

Hezbollah drones (Marwan Naamani / Getty)
Marwan Naamani / Getty

A Hezbollah official responsible for drone attacks on northern Israel was killed in an apparent Israeli airstrike on Tuesday, after the Iranian-backed terror group succeeded in hitting an Israeli base with drones, though without causing any major damage.

Earlier Tuesday, Hezbollah drones managed to evade Israel’s aerial defenses and to reach the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) northern command base, as the Jewish News Syndicate reported:

Hezbollah attacked the IDF’s Northern Command headquarters in the Upper Galilee city of Safed with several drones on Tuesday.

The military said that there were no casualties or damage from the attack and that the base was functioning as usual following the attack. However, Hebrew media reported minor infrastructure damage to the base.

In a statement, the terrorist group said it was in response to the alleged Israeli assassinations of Radwan Force commando unit commander Jawad al-Tawil in Southern Lebanon and the killing last week of Hamas terror chief Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut.

Israel responded with artillery fire, and airstrikes.

One airstrike killed Ali Hussein Barji, who is described by the Times of Israel as “a senior Hezbollah commander responsible for dozens of drone attacks on northern Israel in recent months.”

Update: The IDF released the following statement late Tuesday:

Today (Tuesday), an IAF aircraft eliminated Ali Hussein Barji, the Commander of the Southern Lebanon Region of Hezbollah’s Aerial Unit. Ali led dozens of terror activities against Israel using explosive UAVs and surveillance UAVs against Israel and IDF soldiers. Ali also led the attack against the headquarters of the IDF Northern Command earlier today.

Before his elimination, a launch cell belonging to Hezbollah’s Aerial Unit which was on its way to launch explosive UAVs toward different locations in Israel was eliminated.

Tensions have been increasing along the Israel-Lebanon border since Hezbollah began firing missiles and rockets into Israel sporadically, following the Hamas invasion of southern Israel on October 7.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the 2021 e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now updated with a new foreword. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

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