The China Mail - Hezbollah mourns top commander killed in Israel strike, Iran Guards urge revenge

Haytham Ali Tabatabai is the most senior commander from the Iran-backed group to be killed by Israel since a November 2024 ceasefire sought to end more than a year of hostilities between the two sides.

Sunday's raid came with Israel escalating its attacks on Lebanon and Washington increasing pressure on the government to disarm the group and cut off its sources of funding.

Tehran slammed Tabatabai's killing as "cowardly" while Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said "the right of the Axis of Resistance and Lebanese Hezbollah to avenge the blood of the brave fighters of Islam is unquestionable" -- referring to Iran-backed armed groups hostile to Israel.

Hundreds of supporters joined Monday's funeral procession in Beirut's densely populated southern suburbs, where Hezbollah holds sway, for Tabatabai and two of his companions, whose coffins were draped in the group's yellow flags, an AFP correspondent said.

The crowd yelled slogans against Israel and America, while supporters carried portraits of the group's leaders and Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

France's foreign ministry and UN chief Antonio Guterres's spokesman expressed concern at the strike and urged restraint, with the UN's Stephane Dujarric reminding parties that "civilians and civilian areas must not be targeted".

- 'Civilian areas' -

Israel's military had said it "eliminated the terrorist Haytham Ali Tabatabai, Hezbollah's chief of general staff".

The group announced the deaths of Tabatabai and four other members in the attack.

Hezbollah said Tabatabai assumed the role of military leader after the latest war with Israel, which saw the group heavily weakened and senior commanders killed including its longtime chief Hassan Nasrallah.

Israel has carried out near-daily strikes on Lebanon despite the ceasefire, usually saying it is targeting Hezbollah members and infrastructure, and accusing the group of rearming.

According to the truce, Hezbollah was to withdraw north of the Litani River, some 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the Israeli border, and to have its military infrastructure there dismantled.

Under a government-approved plan, Lebanon's army is to finish disarming Hezbollah in the area by year's end, before tackling the rest of the country.

Hezbollah has rejected calls to surrender its weapons.

After Tabatabai's killing, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would "not allow Hezbollah to rebuild its power" and urged Lebanon's government to "fulfil its commitment to disarm Hezbollah".

A source close to Hezbollah told AFP on condition of anonymity there were "two opinions within the group -- those who wish to respond to the assassination and those who want to refrain from doing so -- but the leadership tends to adopt the utmost forms of diplomacy at the present stage".

- 'Very limited' options -

Senior Hezbollah official Ali Damush told the funeral that Tabatabai's killing aimed to push Hezbollah into "surrendering and submitting, but this goal will never be achieved".

Israel was "worried about Hezbollah's possible response -- and should remain worried", he said, urging Lebanese authorities to "confront the aggression by all means... and reject the pressures that seek to push Lebanon to comply with American dictates and Israeli conditions".

Atlantic Council researcher Nicholas Blanford told AFP that "Hezbollah's options are very limited".

"Its support base is clamouring for revenge but if Hezbollah responds directly... Israel will strike back very hard and no one in Lebanon will thank Hezbollah for that," he said.

Sunday's strike was the biggest blow to Hezbollah since the ceasefire "because of (Tabatabai's) seniority... it demonstrates the Israelis can still locate and target senior officials despite whatever protective measures Hezbollah is undertaking" since the war, Blanford added.

Lebanon's army says it is implementing its plan to disarm Hezbollah, but the United States and Israel have accused Lebanon's authorities of stalling.

Condemning the attack, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said Sunday that "the only way to consolidate stability" was through "extending the authority of the state over all its territory".

Last December, Hezbollah also lost a key supply route through Syria with the fall of longtime ruler and ally Bashar al-Assad.

R.Yeung--ThChM