Top Hezbollah commander Jaafar Khader Faour killed in Lebanon, says Israel

The Israeli army on Saturday said that it had killed Jaafar Khader Faour, a top commander of Hezbollah’s Nasser Brigade rocket unit in southern Lebanon. The military said that he has been responsible for multiple attacks on Israel since October 2023.

Hezbollah did not immediately comment or confirm Faour’s death.

“Faour was responsible for multiple rocket attacks toward the Golan, including an attack that resulted in the deaths of Israeli civilians from Kibbutz Ortal, an attack on Majdal Shams which killed 12 children and injured many and the rocket attack on Metula last Thursday, which resulted in the deaths of 5 civilians,” the Israeli Defence Force said in a statement.

The Hezbollah unit which fired the rockets towards Israel on October 8 was also under his command, the IDF noted.

Earlier on Saturday, Israeli naval forces said that they captured a senior Hezbollah operative in north Lebanon. However, they did not reveal his identity. An Israeli military official said “a senior operative of Hezbollah, who serves as an expert in his field, was apprehended”.

The Lebanese authorities also said it was investigating whether Israel was behind the capture of a Lebanese sea captain who was taken away by a group of armed men who had landed on the coast near the northern town of Batroun on Friday.

“The operative has been transferred to Israeli territory and is currently being investigated,” the military official told news agency AP, without providing the name of the person in detention.

Lebanese military officials also added that the captured man, a captain, may have connections to Hezbollah. They noted that the investigation is examining whether the individual was linked to Hezbollah or potentially working for an Israeli intelligence agency, with speculation that an Israeli force may have come to extract him.

Hezbollah released a statement describing the event as “Zionist aggression in the Batroun area,” but did not provide further details or confirm whether one of its members had been captured by Israeli forces.