The unidentified man led Hezbollah’s Unit 4400, which is “responsible for the transfers and the amount of funds” to the group through Iran’s oil sales in cooperation with Syria, Israeli army spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a statement.
Unit 4400 of Hezbollah is accused of transporting Iranian oil through Syria, which is then sold in Lebanon to the worth of “tens of millions of dollars,” Hagari said.
Syrian state media also reported an Israeli strike on the Mazzeh neighborhood of Damascus, labeling the casualties as “civilians.”
“At around 5:17 pm today, the Israeli enemy launched an airstrike targeting a civilian car in the residential neighborhood of Mazzeh in Damascus, which led to the martyrdom of two civilians and the injury of three others,” Syria’s state-run SANA news agency said, citing a military source.
Unit 4400 was previously managed by Mohammed Jaafar Ksir, known as Sheikh Salah, who “managed the terrorist organization’s main source of income for years, until we eliminated him in a targeted attack in Beirut in early October,” according to Hagari.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said a non-Syrian man “and his companion were killed as a result of an Israeli strike on a car in the Mazzeh neighborhood.”
The Observatory said the men were attending a memorial ceremony for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, killed by Israel last week in Gaza.
Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on regime-controlled areas of Syria throughout its over a decade-long civil war, often claiming to target pro-Iran militias, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah group which supports the Syrian army.
The strikes have increased since October 7 of last year, when Palestinian Hamas militants launched an unprecedented, large-scale attack on Israeli territory that has prompted significant retaliation.
