Israel eliminates senior Hezbollah terrorist who helped murder Lebanese Prime Minister

Ayyash was involved in the 2005 suicide truck bombing that killed former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

An Israeli strike eliminated Salim Ayyash, a senior Hezbollah terrorist, one of the most wanted in the world, who assisted in the assassination of Lebanon’s Prime Minister in 2005.

On Sunday, al-Arabiya reported that Salim Ayyash, who was given five life sentences in absentia, was dead.

Ayyash was involved in the 2005 suicide truck bombing that killed former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri.

In 2020, an international tribunal gave Ayyash five concurrent life sentences.

The US had offered up to $10 million in information leading to the arrest and capture of Salim Ayyash.

On social media, it was reported that the strike that killed Ayyash took place al-Qusair area on the Syria-Lebanon border.

The strike killed 21 others, including former Lebanese Minister of Economy and Trade Bassel Fleihan, and wounded 226.

Last Thursday, 60 Hezbollah terrorists were killed by Israeli airstrikes on 20 targets north of the Litani River in Lebanon, including the area of Baalbek.

The IDF destroyed the rocket launcher used in an attack against Israel on Wednesday, the most significant attack on central Israel since the war began.

The IDF also neutralized weapons storage areas and terrorist infrastructure.

Strikes were also conducted on Hezbollah targets in Nabatieh and the Dahieh area south of Beirut on Wednesday, according to the IDF.

Among the targets hit in Dahieh, a Hezbollah stronghold, were command centers, weapons storage facilities and terror infrastructure, according to the military.

“All of the targets were embedded in the heart of a civilian area, an additional example of Hezbollah’s cynical exploitation of Lebanese civilians as human shields,” the IDF said.

“Prior to the strikes, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk to civilians, including using precise munitions, surveillance, and issuing warnings to the population in the area.”

According to Lebanese media reports, slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s uncle and his family were killed by an Israeli strike in Southern Lebanon on Wednesday.

Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli strike on his bunker in Beirut on Sept. 27.