Israeli Forces Eliminate Hezbollah Drone Commander Abu Saleh in Beirut

New Delhi:  The Israeli military announced on Thursday that it had killed Hezbollah's drone commander, Mohammed Srur, also known as Abu Saleh, in an airstrike on an apartment building in Beirut. Following the attack, Hezbollah confirmed that its drone chief was targeted by Israeli forces. A source close to the militant group told news agency AFP that the airstrike was specifically aimed at Abu Saleh.

“The Israeli strike focused on Mohammed Srur, the commander of the group’s drone unit, also referred to as Abu Saleh. His status remains uncertain", a Hezbollah official stated after the Israeli military announced it was conducting targeted operations in Beirut.  

Earlier in the day, the Israeli prime minister appeared to downplay hopes of an imminent truce with Hezbollah after the United States and its allies called for an immediate 21-day cease-fire to “provide space for diplomacy.” A new Israeli strike hit the Lebanese capital, rocking an apartment building with an explosion.

As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was en route to New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly, his office said there had been no directive to ease up on fighting on the northern border with Lebanon. It said that there was only a proposal for a cease-fire on the table and that Netanyahu had not responded to it.

The statement tempered hopes for the international initiative aimed at halting increasingly heavy exchanges of fire that have killed hundreds of people in Lebanon and threatened to trigger an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah. Israel has talked of a possible ground invasion into Lebanon to push the militant group away from the border.

Soon after the statement was issued, Hezbollah TV station Al-Manar reported an Israeli airstrike in a suburb of Beirut. It and other stations showed a damaged apartment building in Dahiyeh, the mainly Shiite suburb where Hezbollah has a strong presence.