E-Paper
Who was Haytham Tabtabai? Hezbollah's chief of staff killed by Israel
During the 2023–24 war, Haytham Tabtabai oversaw Hezbollah’s operations division. As senior commanders were assassinated, he continued to climb the hierarchy.
Israel on Sunday killed Hezbollah’s top military official, Haytham Ali Tabtabai, in an air strike on the outskirts of Beirut, a rare targeted operation carried out despite a year-long ceasefire.
Israel’s military first announced the strike, and Hezbollah later confirmed his death, describing him as “the great jihadist commander” who had “worked to confront the Israeli enemy until the last moment of his blessed life,” reported news agency Reuters.
The killing comes nearly a year after a US-brokered truce ended the intense 2023–24 war, during which Israel had already eliminated most of the Iran-backed group’s senior leadership.
Tabtabai, however, was one of the few remaining high-ranking figures to survive the conflict, until now.
Key roles in Radwan Force and wartime ops
Israel’s military said Tabtabai joined Hezbollah in the 1980s and went on to hold several key positions, including in the elite Radwan Force. Most Radwan commanders were killed last year before Israel launched its ground invasion into Lebanon.
During the 2023–24 war, Tabtabai oversaw Hezbollah’s operations division. As senior commanders were assassinated, he continued to climb the hierarchy, Israel said.
According to a senior Lebanese security source cited by Reuters, Tabtabai was born in Lebanon in 1968 to an Iranian-origin father and a Lebanese mother. He wasn’t part of Hezbollah’s founding circle but belonged to its “second generation,” deploying in regional battlefields alongside allied forces in Syria and Yemen.
Once the ceasefire took effect, he was appointed Hezbollah’s chief of staff, a role in which he “worked extensively to restore their readiness for war with Israel,” the Israeli military said.
The Lebanese security source also confirmed his rapid rise, noting that he had been elevated to the top military post over the past year as losses mounted within Hezbollah’s upper ranks.
Israel’s Alma Center, a security research group, said Tabtabai had survived several earlier Israeli attempts on his life in Syria and during last year’s war in Lebanon. This latest strike was the one that finally killed him, reported the news agency.
