Israel announced Sunday that it had killed another high-ranking Hezbollah commander, one tipped as a likely successor to the slain longtime leader of the Iran-backed terror group, Hassan Nasrallah.
Nabil Kaouk was killed alongside at least 10 others Saturday in an airstrike in Lebanon, Hezbollah also confirmed — its seventh high-ranking member taken out in just over a week.
Kaouk, also known as Nabil Qaouk, was eyed as a possible new leader to take over from Nasrallah — whose body was found intact in rubble Saturday, a day after he was killed in an Israeli air attack on Beirut’s southern suburbs, sources confirmed to Reuters.
Kaouk had been the deputy head of Hezbollah’s Central Council, overseeing the Iran-backed organization’s operations in Lebanon’s southern region and orchestrating “terrorist attacks against the State of Israel and its citizens,” the Israeli Defense Force said in a statement.
Kaouk joined Hezbollah in the 1980s, and his more than 30 years plotting violence and terror may have put him in line for the organization’s top spot following the death of longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah, the Telegraph reported.
The U.S. sanctioned Kaouk in 2020 for helping carry out Hezbollah’s “violent agenda against U.S. interests,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said at the time.
Kaouk is the seventh top Hezbollah official slain in Israel’s military blitz that has left the group in shambles.
On Friday, the Israeli strike on an underground compound in Beirut that killed Hezbollah’s leader of 30 years, Hassan Nasrallah, also took out top commander Ali Karaki.
The assassinations came just days after a high-tech attack that took out hundreds of Hezbollah members with exploding pagers and walkie-talkies.
For the past year, Israel and Hezbollah have traded near-daily blows, with rocket attacks from Hezbollah being answered with targeted airstrikes on its Lebanon strongholds.
What to know about the Israeli strike on Hezbollah leader Hassan”>https://nypost.com/2024/09/28/world-news/hezbollah-leader-hassan-nasrallah-killed-by-idf-airstrike-in-beirut/”>Hassan Nasrallah:
- Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon on Sept. 27, 2024.
- The fatal airstrike was delivered by the IDF with 80 tons of “bunker-busting” bombs that were powerful enough to penetrate Nasrallah’s underground hideout. It comes after a years-long operation by Israeli intelligence to find his command center in Beirut.
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the killing of Nasrallah necessary and a potential “historic turning point” in the Middle East. President Biden called the operation a “measure of justice” for Hezbollah’s terror victims.
- Israel’s next move against Hezbollah will likely be determined by Iran’s reaction to the airstrike, experts say.
- Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was moved to a secure location following the death of Nasrallah.
Now, after decades of terror, the fate of Israel’s arch-enemy remains uncertain.
“This will shake the confidence of Hezbollah’s Iran-backed allies across the Arab world, from the Houthis in Yemen to the Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq, as well as Iran itself, sparking a tectonic shift in Iran’s network of influence in the Middle East,” said Lina Khatib, an associate fellow at Chatham House, an international affairs think tank.
Meanwhile, Israel has vowed to keep up the fight.
“The IDF will continue to strike and eliminate the commanders within the Hezbollah terrorist organization and will act against anyone who threatens the citizens of the State of Israel,” its military said.
With Post wires.
