IDF eliminates high-ranking Hezbollah commander, Israeli soldier injured by rocket

The IDF eliminated Ismail al-Zain, the third senior Hezbollah commander it has killed in the last three days, the army announced on Sunday.

Hezbollah later confirmed the death of al-Zain, who was killed in an airstrike while in his vehicle in the village of Kounine. The IDF said he was a key figure in the anti-tank missile unit of the terror group’s elite Radwan Force.

Due to his long history of terror activities, al-Zain had become a center of knowledge in the field of anti-tank weapons and was responsible for dozens of attacks against Israeli targets including civilians, the IDF said.

The IDF says it eliminated a top operative in Hezbollah's elite Radwan force in a drone strike a short while ago in southern Lebanon's Kounine.

Ismail Ali al-Zin, according to the IDF, was a senior commander in Radwan's anti-tank missile unit.

The IDF describes al-Zin as a… https://t.co/0teIGJWsWW pic.twitter.com/yjp67bVcFk

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) March 31, 2024

Al-Zain’s death brought Hezbollah’s death toll to 266 since it began attacking Israel in support of Hamas last October, however, the IDF estimates the real number to be higher.

In the last three days, the IDF has dealt significant blows by successfully eliminating numerous terrorists, including three high-ranking Hezbollah commanders: Al-Zain, the group’s deputy commander of its rocket and missile unit, Ali Naim, and one of the group’s leading commanders in Syria, Ahmad Shahimi.

Throughout Sunday, Hezbollah continued firing numerous rockets, drones and missiles toward Israel, with one rocket lightly injuring an IDF soldier in Kiryat Shmona.

The soldier was taken to hospital for treatment and his family was informed, the IDF said.

Hezbollah later claimed responsibility for the attack, as well as several others, against IDF positions along the border, including a drone that fell in an open area near Mount Dov.

The IDF says it struck additional Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon in the past few hours

The targets included buildings in Mays al-Jabal and Blida where Hezbollah operatives were gathered, rocket launching positions in Markaba, and an observation post in Kafr Kila, the IDF… pic.twitter.com/FI5qkgxCNu

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) March 31, 2024

The IDF said it identified launches aimed at Arab al-Aramshe, Margaliot and Malkyia, with some of them being intercepted by the IDF’s Iron Dome. In response, the IDF shelled the launch areas and carried out a series of airstrikes against Hezbollah targets across southern Lebanon.

Among the attacked targets were several military buildings where terrorists had gathered in the area of Mais al-Jabal and Layda, as well as launch positions in the Markaba area, and an observation post near Kfar Kila in southern Lebanon.

In addition, the IDF attacked the area of Hula with artillery to remove an imminent threat.

The Israeli army also announced on Sunday that an IDF fighter jet intercepted “a suspicious aerial target,” (the IDF’s preferred code for a hostile drone) that approached Israeli territory from Syria overnight. “No crossing into the territory of the State of Israel was detected and the incident ended,” the IDF stated.

The incident followed the latest claim by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iranian proxy militias in Iraq, that it had launched a drone against a “vital target” near the northern Israeli town of Eilabun.

The group has made several similar claims over recent months, with most of the drones failing to cross into Israel or being intercepted by the IDF. In one case, a drone struck near the town of Eliad, causing slight damage to buildings, according to the Times of Israel.