The death of commander Haytham Ali Tabatabai, killed in an Israeli operation in Beirut, shakes the already fragile balance of Lebanon.
Israel followed Haytham Ali Tabatabai for over ten years. Hezbollah’s military commander, a central figure in the Shiite operational apparatus, was located and killed over the weekend in an apartment on the southern outskirts of Beirut, putting an end to a long hunt that had spanned Syria, Yemen And Lebanon. Born to a Lebanese mother and an Iranian father, Tabatabai, as the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) writes, had played a key role in building the network of militias aligned with Tehran: he had led teams in Syria in support of the regime Bashar al-Assad and had contributed to the training of the Houthis in Yemen.
After the devastating war of 2024, which cost Hezbollah the loss of its leader Hassan Nasrallah and the collapse of the entire chain of command, a Tabatabai the most delicate task had been entrusted: rebuilding the group. The assignment, which had made him the most important man of the new generation of commanders, also became the reason why Israel chose to strike. An IDF military official called the operation «Black Friday», conducted the day after Thanksgiving: an Israeli F-15 launched precision missiles on the building where he was hiding, with the aim of sabotaging the rebirth of the organization and issuing a warning. «It’s a signal for the leaders of Hezbollah and for the Beirut government,” the former Israeli security advisor explained to the WSJ Yaakov Amidror. «They promised to disarm Hezbollah. They didn’t. If they don’t act, Israel will do it for them.”
The context is very fragile: a ceasefire imposed after the 2024 war has been in force for a year, a truce which however risks collapsing. Israel And United States they accuse the Lebanese government of not having made concrete progress towards the disarmament of the Shiite movement, while Hezbollah continued to regroup. According to ACLED data, since the beginning of the truce the IDF has carried out over 1,500 strikes against targets in Lebanonleaving the country suspended in a no man’s land between war and peace. The terms of the agreement required Beirut to demilitarize southern Lebanon before extending the measures to the rest of the territory.
Hezbollah he never accepted these conditions. Tabatabai had played a decisive role in redesigning the structure of the group: he had divided the units into small autonomous cells to make them more resistant to Israeli attacks and had allowed Hezbollah to replace most of the 2,500 fighters lost in the conflict. He was also introducing a training system that allowed commanders to immediately train their potential replacements, a lesson learned after the beheading of the top brass the previous fall.
Information gathered by Arab and Israeli intelligence indicates that the group, supported economically and militarily by Iranhas resumed supplies of rockets, anti-tank missiles and artillery. Some of the weapons arrive by sea or through Syria, some are produced locally. “Tabatabai was responsible for the entire effort,” he explained Amidror. «He coordinated the smuggling from Syria, the reconstruction of structures in Lebanon and the training of new recruits.” Hezbollah confirmed the death of its commanderspecifying that he was 57 years old and had joined the movement before the age of majority, contributing to the formation of the Radwan elite force. It was not the first time he had been targeted: in 2015 he had survived an Israeli attack in Quneitra, in southern Syria, and in the following years he had operated in Yemen before returning permanently to Lebanon. In 2018 the United States they had entered his name on the global terrorist list and offered 5 million dollars for information useful for his capture.
The reconstruction network set up by Tabatabai however, it extended beyond the Lebanese borders. Last September 27, the Syrian services seized a huge arsenal in a warehouse in al-Qusayr, a city symbolizing armed trafficking between Syria and Lebanon. Rockets Grad, machine guns and hundreds of RPG they were ready to be transferred across the border. With the fall of the Assad regime, many pro-Iranian militias had left the area, but the vacuum of control has reopened spaces for smugglers and groups linked to Hezbollah. On September 11, Damascus dismantled another cell active in the areas of Sasha And Kanakera few kilometers from the demilitarized zone occupied by Israel.
These raids are certainly not isolated incidents. From 2024 onwards, Iran has taken an increasingly direct role in supporting the resurgence of Shiite party. According to the American Treasury, the Pasdaran they transferred to Hezbollah over a billion dollars in the first ten months of 2025, as well as providing training, logistics and political support. Washington he asked Beirut to strengthen financial controls to block the flows of money passing through money changers, many of which are owned by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad former president of Iran, gold bullion, cryptocurrencies and non-banking circuits. The Lebanese government, however, does not have the strength to impose disarmament. The president Michel Aoun he fears that a direct confrontation with the militia could set the country on fire and unleash new sectarian tensions. On the other hand, Hezbollah considers its weapons an essential guarantee for the defense of Lebanon and is not willing to give them up.
The death of Tabatabai, occurred in broad daylight Dahieh, in the heart of the Shiite stronghold, it is a sign of imminent escalation. According to the American envoy Tom Barrackthe country is at a crossroads: «Or Hezbollah accept direct negotiations with Israel for a disarmament path, or Lebanon will remain abandoned to itself, without anyone being able to prevent Israel from acting as it deems necessary.” With the elimination of its most capable commander, Hezbollah loses the architect of its post-war rebirth. But according to all intelligence sources, the movement has already activated decentralized structures that could allow it to continue operating. And what happens in the coming weeks will determine whether the fragile balance built after the 2024 war can hold or whether the Lebanon will slide back into conflict and resulting chaos.
