BEIRUT — A field commander in Hezbollah's elite Radwan forces was killed in an Israeli strike on south Lebanon, the Israeli military and two security sources said on Thursday(July 18), the latest senior member of the group to be killed in months of tit-for-tat strikes across the border with Israel.

Habib Maatouk had replaced another commander in the elite unit, Ali Ahmed Hassin, who was killed in April in an Israeli strike, the security sources said.

The Israeli military said it had killed a Radwan Force operations unit commander it named as Ali Jaafar Maatuk, along with another commander responsible for Radwan Force operations in the Hajir region. It said additional Radwan Force fighters were also killed in the strike.

Maatouk was killed in one of several strikes on the neighbouring border villages of Safad El Battikh and Jmaijmeh, the sources said. Eighteen wounded were taken to nearby Tebnine government hospital, its director Mohammed Hamadi told Reuters.

Reuters was not able to immediately determine how many were fighters and how many were civilians.

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