Hezbollah has confirmed that its top military commander Haytham Ali Tabatabai has been killed in an Israeli air strike on Lebanon’s capital.

Tabatabai, the chief of staff of the group’s armed wing, was among at least five people killed in the attack on an apartment block in the Hezbollah stronghold of Dahiyeh in southern Beirut on Sunday.

In a statement, Hezbollah said “the great commander” Tabatabai was killed in “a treacherous Israeli attack on the Haret Hreik area in the southern suburbs of Beirut”, without specifying his position within the group.

Tabatabai is the most senior Hezbollah commander to be killed by Israel since the start of a November 2024 ceasefire aimed at ending over a year of hostilities between the two.

The Israeli military said it “eliminated” Tabatabai in the strike, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office earlier said he was the target of the attack. Israeli media said it was the military’s third attempt to kill him since last year’s war.

Senior Hezbollah official Mahmoud Qmati had earlier said that Israel’s strike crossed a “red line” and that the group’s leadership was considering whether it would respond.

“The strike on the southern suburbs today opens the door to an escalation of assaults all over Lebanon,” he said.

Tabatabai was born in 1968 in Beirut to a Lebanese mother and an Iranian father. He grew up in southern Lebanon and joined Hezbollah at the age of 12.

Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health said the Israeli attack also wounded 28 people.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) reported that two missiles were fired at the apartment building on al-Arid Street in Haret Hreik, and significant damage was inflicted on cars and surrounding buildings.

‘Hezbollah in a difficult position’

Reporting from Beirut, Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr said there is a growing concern in Lebanon that Israel, “which has been acting with impunity, will increase its strikes”.

“Hezbollah is in a difficult position,” she said. “It has lost its deterrence capabilities, and without a response, it could invite more Israeli attacks. But if it does respond, it could trigger a bigger Israeli bombardment that could hurt its support base.”

Ali Rizk, a security affairs analyst, told Al Jazeera that a major question now is how Hezbollah is going to respond.

“In my humble opinion, I don’t think Hezbollah is ready to give Netanyahu what he wants, meaning to give Netanyahu an excuse to launch an all-out war against Lebanon once again. That could help Netanyahu’s political chances. It could also be very costly,” he said.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called on the international community to intervene firmly to stop the Israeli attacks on the country.

In a statement earlier on Sunday, Aoun said Lebanon “reiterates its call to the international community to assume its responsibility and intervene firmly and seriously to stop the attacks on Lebanon and its people”.

Israel assassinated longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an air attack on southern Beirut just over a year ago.

Sunday’s strike came only days before Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to visit the country amid intensified Israeli aggression in recent weeks.

Hezbollah MP Ali Ammar said Israel has been striking all of Lebanon since the ceasefire agreement was brokered by the United States about a year ago.

“Every attack on Lebanon is a crossing of a red line, and this aggression is inherent in the entity that targets Lebanon’s dignity, sovereignty, and the security of its citizens,” he said.

Repeated Israeli attacks

Israel has been carrying out near-daily strikes on southern Lebanon and has also attacked Beirut several times, but the capital had not been hit in the past several months.

At least 13 people were killed in an Israeli air strike on a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon this week, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health.

A drone hit a car on Tuesday in the car park of a mosque in the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp on the outskirts of the coastal city of Sidon, the state-run NNA reported.

Israel and the US have been piling pressure on Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah.

The Lebanese military issued a plan that the government approved in September that would disarm Hezbollah across the country by the end of the year. Hezbollah has refused to comply while Israel continues to bomb the country and occupy parts of the south.

Israel has said Hezbollah is trying to rebuild its military capabilities in southern Lebanon, though the Lebanese government has denied those claims.