Who was Haytham Ali Tabatabai, Hezbollah’s number two assassinated by Israel who sought to “rebuild” the Shiite militia

Israel has claimed responsibility for the attack that killed Tabatabai, noting that “preparing Hezbollah for war” against the Jewish State, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described it as a “serial killer” who led the “rearming efforts” of said group.

“Under my leadership, the State of Israel will not allow Hezbollah to rebuild its power and we will not allow it to again pose a threat to the State of Israel. I hope that the Lebanese government will fulfill its commitment to disarm Hezbollah,” indicated the Israeli prime minister on the social network X.

Hezbollah confirmed the death of his chief of staff, calling him “great martyred jihadist commander” and pointing out the incident as a “treacherous attack”. Iran, the Shiite group’s main regional ally, considered the death of Tabatabai as a “cowardly murder” and stated that his right to “take revenge” was “unquestionable.”

“Every attack against Lebanon is the crossing of a red line and this aggression is inherent to the entity that attacks the dignity of Lebanon, its sovereignty and the security of its citizens”declared Ali Ammar, Hezbollah deputy.

Early start and climb

Haytham Ali Tabatabai was born in the Bashoura neighborhood in Beirut, in 1968. His father was of Iranian origin and his mother was Lebanese. Israeli intelligence maintains that he joined the Shiite group at an extremely young age, in 1980. Hezbollah claims it was part of its organization since 1982.

Media such as Al Jazeera indicate that he was not one of the most recognized figures of the Lebanese paramilitary group among the public, but that he was a key element that was progressively ascending in the organizational chart and had extensive military experience.

He was in charge of the operations of Hezbollah in the region surrounding the city of Nabatieh when Israel occupied part of the southern region of the Lebanondirecting attacks between 1996 and 2000, the year in which the Jewish State withdrew. Shortly after, he commanded the front in another southern Lebanese town, Khiam, until 2008.

Tabatabai He is considered one of the founders of the Radwan Forceconsidered Hezbollah’s elite combat unitwith which he led operations in Yemen and Syria, being head of operations along the entire border with the latter country. Added to the above is that he had a reputation as an instructor of other Islamist militias in the Middle East.

Since before the last intervention of Israel on Lebanon in 2024, Tabatabai had already carried out work as a commander in other larger-scale conflicts against the Jewish country. One of them was the 2006 war, which lasted just over a month and was seen as a strategic failure by Israeli military analysts.

Hezbollah commander had been labeled a terrorist by the US government since the last decade, and was considered one of its most evasive leaders, due to the large number of attacks it survived. It was for this reason that Washington offered a reward of 5 million dollars for any information that led to his capture.

Recent leadership and death

In the midst of its military intervention in Gaza, Israel once again directly fought against Hezbollahafter this group launched attacks in support of Hamas.

The Israeli response was forceful and would end up sweeping away a good part of the leadership of the Shiite militia.who perished in strategic bombings and the remembered mega-operation of September 2024, in which Israeli intelligence coordinated the explosion of the beepers and walkie-talkies that Hezbollah members used to communicate.

During this period, crucial figures from Hezbollah’s high command such as Hassan Nasrallah, Ali Karaki, Fuad Shukr and Ibrahim Akil died, in addition to which the Radwan Force also suffered significant casualties.

Despite this, Tabatabai He managed to survive and replaced Karaki as commander of the southern front, becoming the main de facto military leader, as recognized by the Israel Defense Forces.

Once the ceasefire was established in the Lebanon In November 2024, he was officially named Hezbollah chief of staff with the idea of ​​rebuilding the militia apparatus. If his head already had a price, from that moment on the new leader of the paramilitary group had become a priority objective for Israel.

After the ceasefire, Israeli forces undertook new attacks on Lebanese territory, indicating that the bombings targeted the members and infrastructure of Hezbollah. These operations were frequent during the last month and it is in that context that the incursion that put an end to Hezbollah’s number two is framed.

The day of the attack on Tabatabai the inhabitants of Haret Hreit, an area located south of the Lebanese capital, They reported hearing the sound of military planes before an explosionand an AFP correspondent said the attack was against a nine story buildingthe third and fourth being those that were hit by Israeli projectiles.

The official Lebanese NNA agency indicated that three missiles were fired at the building and that the attack affected the surrounding area. In addition to Tabatabai, the four Hezbollah members who died in the attack were Rifaat Ahmed Hussein, Qassem Hussein Barjawi, Ibrahim Ali Hussein and Mustafa Asaad Barrou.

Late Hezbollah military leader farewelled by procession of hundreds this Monday and his coffin was carried through the streets of Dahye along with those of the others who died in the Israeli bombing.