Israel targeted the chief of staff of Lebanon’s Iran-aligned Hezbollah group in a strike in the capital Beirut’s southern suburbs, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Sunday.
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The strike is the first on the capital’s southern suburbs in months and is known for housing Hezbollah officials.
The target of the strike was military official Ali Tabtabai, according to an Israeli source briefed on the strike and a Lebanese security source. Netanyahu’s office did not say whether Tabtabai had been killed.
A senior US official said Israel did not notify Washington in advance about the strike, an Axios reporter said on Sunday in a post on social media.
The official said the administration was informed immediately after the strike and a second senior US official said the US knew for days that Israel was planning to escalate strikes in Lebanon.
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The US imposed sanctions on Tabtabai in 2016, identifying him as a key Hezbollah military leader and offering a reward of up to US$5 million for information on him.
The strike hit a main road in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where residents told journalists they heard the roar of warplanes before the blast.