Wissam al-Tawil is the most senior militant in the secretive armed group Hezbollah killed since Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. The killing in southern Lebanon is the latest Gaza-linked escalation.
The militia fired dozens of rockets at northern Israel, warning that the barrage was its initial response to the targeted killing of a top leader from the allied Hamas group in Lebanon's capital.
The Iran-backed Lebanese militia and Israeli forces have been fighting across their border since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, but analysts say they want to avoid a war.
A farming village in southern Lebanon sits on the edge of a parallel conflict to the war in Gaza, with Hezbollah militants fighting with Israel. Some Lebanese hold out hope for a permanent truce.
Hamas is viewed by many Israelis as an existential threat in the south. But in the north, especially in Upper Galilee, many Israelis say Lebanon's Hezbollah militants must also be destroyed.
The war draws together Iran-backed Shia and Sunni militants in what appears to be closer cooperation between groups that differ in ideology but are united by opposition to Israel and the U.S.
Thousands of villagers living along the border with Israel have been evacuated to Tyre, 50 miles south of Beirut. Their escape is a reminder of the cost of the war in Gaza, even far from its borders.
Across Israel, especially in the north, hospitals are setting up underground or fortified care facilities as fallout from war with Hamas intensifies fighting with militants in neighboring Lebanon.
Israel's intensifying military campaign in Gaza is raising the specter of a broader regional war involving Iran-allied groups. Iran's foreign minister says its allies are ready to strike.
There have been questions about how Iranian-backed forces in the "axis of resistance" may influence the Israel-Hamas war. The network of forces is "a kind of NATO for militant groups," an expert says.
The surprise attack on Israel has brought the militant group back into the spotlight. A Hamas official tells NPR the attack was meant in part to lead to the release of Palestinians in Israeli jails.
The Israeli military on Saturday said it shot down three unmanned aircraft launched by Lebanese militant group Hezbollah moving near an Israeli gas platform in the Mediterranean Sea.
Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group and its allies lost their parliamentary majority, final elections results showed Tuesday, while more than a dozen independent newcomers gained seats.
Arab and U.S. liberals differ on how to handle Iran and its proxies, writes Firas Maksad. He says reactions to the killing of his friend Lokman Slim, a critic of Hezbollah, are a case in point.
