On Tuesday, March 4, reports emerged that Israeli aircraft targeted and destroyed a vehicle in south Lebanon, killing its occupants. An unnamed Israeli official told Galei Tzahal, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) radio network, that the target had been a “central figure” in Hezbollah’s elite commando unit, the Radwan Force.
Al Arabiya soon reported, and Hezbollah sources confirmed through issuing a martyrdom notice, that the strike’s target was Khodr Said Hashem, whose nom de guerre was “Sadeq.” The martyrdom notice described Hashem as a “martyr on the road to Jerusalem,” code for having died in battle with Israel, and placed his hometown as the village of Rashkhnaniyeh in Tyre District of the South Governorate of Lebanon.
Shortly afterward, the IDF issued an official statement on Hashem’s assassination and a video of the strike. The statement said that Israeli aircraft had “targeted and killed the terrorist Khodr Said Hashem” near the village of Qana—some 2.95 kilometers northwest of Rashkhnaniyeh—in Tyre District. This strike occurred approximately 30 kilometers south of the Litani River, where the November 27 ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon requires Beirut to prevent Hezbollah from operating.
The IDF statement identified Hashem as “the commander of the Radwan Force’s seaborne forces in Hezbollah” who was “involved in terrorist activity against the State of Israel and its citizens.” The IDF said Hashem had “joined Hezbollah almost two decades ago, and since then filled several command roles within the organization.”
As part of his duties commanding the Radwan Force’s seaborne forces, the statement continued, Hashem helped Hezbollah transfer and procure weapons through “maritime channels.” The IDF also noted that Hashem took part in “planning Hezbollah’s terror attacks by sea against the State of Israel and its citizens, including during the ceasefire.”
The IDF’s statement concluded by saying, “Hashem’s activities posed a threat to the State of Israel and its citizens” and were a “flagrant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.” The “understandings” are a reference to the November 27 ceasefire deal, which requires Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah’s fighters south of the Litani River, dismantle the group’s infrastructure in the area, and seal its borders and ports of entry to arms and materiel destined for the group.
