The Israeli military announced Tuesday that it had killed Mohammed Jaafar Qassir, a senior Hezbollah operative, in an airstrike on an apartment building on the outskirts of Beirut, Lebanon.
According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Qassir was the head of Hezbollah’s Unit 4400, responsible for smuggling weapons from Iran to Lebanon and overseeing the development of precision-guided missiles.
“Qassir played a crucial role in Hezbollah’s weapons acquisition and development program,” said an IDF spokesperson, who requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the operation. “He was also responsible for transferring hundreds of millions of dollars to the organization in recent years.”
The strike, which occurred Tuesday afternoon, marks a significant escalation in Israel’s operations against Hezbollah leadership. Hezbollah has not yet commented on the Israeli claim.
Qassir’s brother, Ahmad, is known for carrying out a suicide attack against Israeli forces in the southern Lebanese port city of Tyre in 1982, which reportedly killed dozens of Israeli soldiers. Hezbollah annually commemorates his death on “Martyr’s Day.”
