The death of Kaúk was announced by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Twitter, stating that they will continue to eliminate members of the organization’s leadership.
Kaúk was supposed to have been killed on Saturday evening in an airstrike in the suburb of Dahija in the south of Beirut, which is known as a stronghold of Hezbollah. Already on Friday, Hasan Nasrallah was killed here in a similar attack.
Nabíl Kaúk on an archive picture
In the viewfinder since 2020
Kaúk was one of the veterans of Hezbollah, which he joined in the 1980s. He served as vice-chairman and later as head of the South Lebanon region in the executive council. The United States placed it on its sanctions list in 2020.
He was also considered by Middle Eastern analysts as one of the possible successors of Nasrallah, who headed the movement for 32 years. Hezbollah has been decimated especially in recent weeks by Israel’s incessant attacks on its leadership.
In particular, in the suburbs of Dahija, a number of other high-ranking leaders of the movement died during Israeli attacks in the last two weeks. Last week, the terrorist group also became the target of sophisticated attacks using pagers and radios, the explosions of which killed at least 39 people in Lebanon and injured over 3,700 others.
At the beginning of this week, Israel launched the most intensive strikes since the war with Hezbollah in 2006, targeting the positions of the movement in the south and east of Lebanon.
The supreme leader of the Hezbollah movement Hasan Nasrallah in archival footageVideo: Reuters
Revenge for killed children
In recent months, Israel has significantly stepped up its attacks on Lebanese territory aimed at Hezbollah. It is a direct reaction to the terrorist attack on the soccer field in July, where more than ten children died and others were injured. The victim was between ten and twenty years old.
“I was shocked when I saw the terrible pictures after the murderous attack by Hezbollah on Majdal Shams. Among those murdered were small children who were playing football,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the time.
“I can say that the State of Israel will not pass it by in silence. Hezbollah will pay a high price for this, which it has not paid so far,” he added.
