Three IDF soldiers were seriously wounded in a Hezbollah attack on Saturday in the southern Lebanon security zone, according to a report by security analyst Yair Goldblatt. The IDF retaliated by striking the Hezbollah headquarters that ordered the attack, eliminating a Radwan Force battalion commander. The report also alleges that Hezbollah deliberately placed civilians in the military compound, a detail discovered by the IDF after the strike.
Three IDF soldiers were seriously wounded in a Hezbollah explosive drone attack near the Ali Taher ridge in southern Lebanon early Saturday morning, the military confirmed. The drone, launched by Hezbollah around 02:30 Jerusalem time, struck near a unit of the Yahalom commando corps. The wounded troops were evacuated by helicopter to a hospital.
In response, the IDF carried out retaliatory strikes across southern Lebanon, targeting a Hezbollah command headquarters in the town of Ansar. The operation eliminated Ali Samir Al-Haj Hassan, a battalion commander in the elite Radwan Force, along with six other operatives, according to the IDF. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hezbollah of violating the ceasefire and of using human shields, after the military reported that Hassan had sheltered his family in the military compound — a detail discovered after the strike.
The attack and retaliation mark the latest escalation along the Lebanon border since the ceasefire. Earlier, on June 19, the IDF struck over 80 Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon after a separate attack killed four Israeli soldiers, as The Zioneer reported at the time. That operation eliminated dozens of operatives. Israeli forces remain deployed in the security zone to prevent Hezbollah from re-establishing a forward presence.
The claim that the Hezbollah commander used his family as human shields originates from the IDF and is attributed to Prime Minister Netanyahu; it has not been independently confirmed. Lebanese media reported 11 killed in the Israeli strikes, and the Lebanese prime minister called the escalation dangerous. The identities and affiliations of all those killed have not been verified by independent sources.
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