THIS is the moment deputy commander of Hezbollah’s rocket and missile unit Ali Abed Akhsan Naim was killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Dramatic footage released by the IDF reveals the terror boss getting completely wiped out after a pinpoint drone blitz in Lebanon.
The short clip shows Naim’s final moments alive as his car was driving down a road in southern Lebanon’s Bazouriye.
The vehicle is suddenly hit by the Israeli drone, later being engulfed by flames in a giant fireball.
The Israeli military said on Friday that Naim was one of the Iranian-backed militia’s leaders in heavy-warhead rocket fire, responsible for conducting and planning attacks against Israeli civilians.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that “a raid by an enemy drone targeted a car” in Bazouriyeh and killed at least one person.
Hezbollah is a Shiite political party and terrorist force in Lebanon that receives Iranian backing.
The US and Germany consider it a terrorist organisation, while the EU classifies its armed branch as a terrorist group.
Since the commencement of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, there have been almost daily skirmishes along Israel’s border with Lebanon.
Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon have killed around 270 Hezbollah combatants and 50 civilians, including doctors, civilians, and journalists.
In northern Israel, over a dozen Israeli forces and a half-dozen civilians were killed.
Israel also launched its bloodiest attacks in months in northern Syria’s Aleppo region early Friday.
Three Hezbollah militants were confirmed to be among the dead in Syria, war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant blamed the Iran-backed terror group to be the ones behind the damage in Lebanon.
He said: “The one responsible for the serious damage in Lebanon is Hezbollah and the one responsible for the many casualties in the Hezbollah group is [Hassan] Nasrallah personally.
“They have over 320 terrorists killed, and we will exact a price for any action that comes out of Lebanon.
“”Wherever we need to act, we will act.”
Hinting at Israel’s alleged overnight airstrike in Syria, Gallant added the military will “expand the campaign [against Hezbollah] and increase the rate of attacks in the north.”
He said: “Israel is turning from defending to pursuing Hezbollah, we will reach wherever the organisation operates, in Beirut, Damascus and in more distant places.
‘Shadow Man’ gone
Naim’s death comes just days after Hamas terror chief Yahya Sinwar’s righthand man Marwan Issa was killed in another Israeli airstrike.
Branded the “Shadow Man”, Issa was number three on the IDF’s most-wanted list following the horrors of Hamas’ massacre in Israel which killed 1,200 people.
He was killed on March 10 during an operation in the Gaza Strip, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari confirmed today.
Issa was the deputy commander of Hamas’ military wing and acted as one of Yahya Sinwar‘s henchmen.
He died alongside another top terror chief – Ghazi Abu Tamaa.
The terror boss reported directly to Sinwar, the monster dubbed “The Hamas Bin Laden” who masterminded the October massacre in Israel.
Nicknamed the “Shadow Man”, Issa was number three on Israel’s most-wanted list, alongside Mohammed Deif and Sinwar.
A source from inside the terror group previously told Reuters: “Brother Issa is the walking nightmare of the enemy.”
Israeli forces are still hunting his fellow terror chiefs, despite some reports Deif was killed in an earlier strike.
Issa, Sinwar and Deif reportedly formed a secret three-way council inside Hamas and planned the gruesome attack on Israel’s border.
The three of them are believed to have directed military operations from the tunnels running through Gaza and its backstreets ever since.
Hagari said earlier this week: “We have checked all the intelligence.
“Marwan Issa was eliminated in the strike we carried out around two weeks ago.”
Issa died during a strike in Nuseirat, a refugee camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip where he was hiding.
The US announced his death days ago, but Israel has just verified the information.