The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced that they killed Abu Hassan Alaa, a senior Hezbollah commander, in strikes carried out over the weekend in the Deir ez-Zahrani area of southern Lebanon.
Alaa was a commander in Hezbollah’s Badr unit and had carried out numerous attacks against IDF soldiers operating in the area.
The IDF said the strike was carried out alongside other attacks over the weekend targeting a Hezbollah headquarters in the Ansar area, where Ali Samir Al-Haj Hassan, a battalion commander in Hezbollah’s Radwan Force, was killed.
The two strikes were carried out in response to Hezbollah operations against Israeli forces, including an attack over the weekend that seriously wounded three IDF soldiers.
However, on Saturday, the IDF said that Hassan’s family was with him inside the headquarters when the strike was carried out.
The IDF and the Prime Minister’s Office said the military was unaware that civilians were inside the Hezbollah facility at the time of the attack.
The IDF said: “It should be noted that his family members were not the intended targets of the strike. The strike specifically targeted Hassan.”
It added:“This terrorist used his family as human shields, hiding with them inside the military headquarters.”
The Prime Minister’s Office said it was unaware that Hezbollah had placed civilians inside the Hezbollah military facility.
It said: “The IDF only learned afterward that Hezbollah had deliberately placed civilians inside the military facility. Hezbollah is prepared to do anything, including using its own civilians as human shields, in order to falsely accuse Israel of deliberately targeting civilians, when it is clear that the IDF did not do so.”
Hezbollah entered the war on March 2, after Ali Khamenei was killed by Israel on February 28, 2026, with the Lebanon-based group immediately launching attacks against Israel.
Israel subsequently responded with strikes against Hezbollah. The situation deteriorated further after the United States and Iran agreed to a ceasefire, as Israel appeared to shift its military focus from Iran to Lebanon in a major offensive that caused widespread destruction.
Since then, Israel has carried out heavy strikes against Hezbollah targets. Lebanese authorities say more than 4,300 people have been killed and around 12,000 others wounded.
