The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed on May 7 that it killed Ahmed Ali Balout, commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, in a precision airstrike on Beirut’s Dahiyeh neighborhood the previous day, marking the first attack on the Lebanese capital since the April 17 ceasefire.
The same strike killed two other senior Hezbollah figures, Muhammad Ali Bazi, intelligence chief of the Nasr regional division, and Hussein Hassan Romani, the group’s aerial defense chief.
🔴ELIMINATED: In recent weeks, 220+ Hezbollah terrorists who posed a threat to IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians have been eliminated.
Key terrorists were eliminated including:
– Ahmed Ali Balout, the Commander of Hezbollah’s ‘Radwan Force’ Unit
– Muhammad Ali Bazi – Head of… pic.twitter.com/u0xAVDvza7— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 7, 2026
The IDF said Balout directed dozens of attacks against Israeli troops in southern Lebanon and was working to revive the Radwan Force’s long-planned “Conquer the Galilee” ground assault concept.
“This is the same senior terrorist who led the plan to conquer the north,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote on Telegram Thursday. “No terrorist has immunity. Anyone who threatens the State of Israel will pay the price.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:
Yesterday evening, we eliminated the commander of Hezbollah’s Radwan Force, in the heart of Beirut.
This is the same senior terrorist who led the plan to conquer the North. pic.twitter.com/dLtupPp8w5
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) May 7, 2026
Kan, Israel’s public broadcaster, reported the strike was coordinated with Washington ahead of U.S.-brokered talks between Israeli and Lebanese envoys scheduled in Washington on May 14 and 15, according to the State Department.
Follow-on IDF airstrikes on May 7 hit Ain Baal in the Tyre District and Dibbin in the Marjayoun District. The IDF also issued evacuation orders for the towns of Deir al-Zahrani, Bafroa, and Habush in southern Lebanon, citing ongoing Hezbollah ceasefire violations.
Hezbollah had not formally retaliated by press time, continuing low-to-medium attacks on IDF troops in the south. The group’s fiber-optic first-person-view (FPV) drones, guided by physical cables rather than radio signals and resistant to electronic jamming, have maintained pressure on Israeli ground forces. One IDF soldier was seriously injured and three others were lightly wounded in a Hezbollah drone attack on May 6.
The IDF said it has killed more than 220 Hezbollah operatives and destroyed more than 180 military sites since the April 17 ceasefire.
