Tel Aviv/Beirut, Mar 2 (.) Israel announced Monday that it had eliminated the intelligence arm of Hezbollah in an overnight strike in south Lebanon, following the Iran-backed group’s rocket attack on Israel. Hours after Hezbollah had conducted its attack, Beirut declared that it will impose an all-out ban on the Islamist militia’s military activities, noting that its activities put the country’s interests in jeopardy.
The IDF confirmed that the overnight strike in the Lebanese capital killed Hussein Makled, whom it called “the head of Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters.”
According to the IDF, Makled was key in “forming the intelligence picture” of Hezbollah, by overseeing the collection and analysis of intelligence on Israeli troop movements and was closely involved with senior Hezbollah commanders in planning attacks against Israel.
“He also closely cooperated with senior commanders in Hezbollah who planned and advanced terror attacks against Israel and its citizens,” the military said.
The group’s attack on Israel came as “revenge for the blood of (Iranian) supreme leader Ali Khamenei” following the joint Israeli-US strikes on Iran on Saturday, which led to the elimination of a massive chunk of the Islamic Republic’s command structure. Post Hezbollah’s rocket attack, Israel proceeded to launch waves of airstrikes across Lebanon, including in Beirut.
Releasing a statement following the chairing of an emergency cabinet meeting, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said that Lebanon rejected any kind of military action launched from its territory unless authorised by the state.
“The decision of war and peace is exclusively in its hands,” Salam said, adding that this required “the immediate prohibition of all Hezbollah’s security and military activities as being outside the law, and obliging it to hand over its weapons to the Lebanese state.”
He further instructed the army and security agencies to take immediate steps to prevent any further missile or drone launches from Lebanese soil.
It was the latest effort by Lebanon’s leadership to assert its authority over Hezbollah, which it has been seeking to disarm ever since the start of its ceasefire with Israel in November 2024, reports Times Of Israel.
On Saturday, following the US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran, Salam warned that Lebanon would not allow itself to be pulled into another war.
President Joseph Aoun reiterated on Sunday that only the Lebanese state could decide on matters of war and peace, urging Hezbollah to stay out of the conflict, as it had during the previous 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June 2025; however, that plea fell on deaf ears.
In the wake of the attack on the Jewish nation, Defence Minister Israel Katz said on X that Hezbollah’s chief Naim Qassem was now “a marked target for elimination.”
Katz further warned that Tel Aviv would send Qassem to “the depths of hell” like Khamenei.
“We will strike Hezbollah hard, and Naim Qassem, chairman of the Hezbollah terrorist organization, will discover that whoever follows Khamenei’s path ends up like Khamenei — in the depths of hell,” Katz said during a visit to the Israeli Air Force operations center.
IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin also echoed a similar statement, and said Hezbollah opened fire. It chose to start a campaign. It will pay a heavy price,” adding that dozens of command centres and rocket launch sites had been struck and that further operations were planned in southern Lebanon, the results of the strikes were under review.
Defrin said that additional strikes will be conducted in south Lebanon, where the IDF issued evacuation warnings to dozens of villages.
Lebanese authorities announced the opening of displacement shelters in dozens of schools in Beirut, the south, and Mount Lebanon.
Lebanon’s health ministry said at least 31 people were killed in the Israeli strikes since the early hours of Monday, without differentiating between civilians and members of Hezbollah.
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