The Israeli occupation army announced on Monday evening that it had carried out an air strike targeting the town of Taloussa in southern Lebanon. An official statement issued by the army stated that the raid resulted in the killing of Ali Haj Ahmed Turmos, whom Tel Aviv described as the local Hezbollah official in the town, as part of what Israel calls the party’s “network of links” in the border villages.
Israeli media quoted military sources as saying that the Israeli army had monitored during the past weeks what it described as organized attempts by Hezbollah to restore its field structure in the villages of southern Lebanon, as part of a plan that aims, according to the Israeli narrative, to restore gradual deployment and enhance readiness near the border.
“Maariv” newspaper reported to journalist Avi Ashkenazi that estimates in the leadership of the Northern Region and the 91st Division indicate that the party has once again returned to relying on a network of local representatives in the southern villages called “links,” who are in charge of logistical coordination, renting homes and buildings, and securing sites that are used, according to the Israeli claim, to store combat means or to establish observation points and field support.
The Israeli military establishment believes that these people constitute an essential link in what it describes as an attempt to “rebuild the military infrastructure” after the recent war in the north. Accordingly, the army decided to include them on the target list.
According to the data revealed in the report, the Israeli army carried out a series of targeting operations during the last period, which led to the assassination of 12 field officials charged with local liaison duties in the villages of the south, as part of what Tel Aviv describes as “thwarting the repositioning process.”
Israeli sources confirmed that these strikes were the result of careful intelligence follow-up, and that they were part of a broader strategy aimed at preventing Hezbollah from establishing a new field structure in the south. It also indicated that the army considers any organizational or logistical activity of the party in those areas a violation of the existing understandings.
On the other hand, this path reflects the continuation of open, low-level clashes on the Lebanese-Israeli border, as Israel seeks to establish a deterrence equation that prevents the rebuilding of the party’s capabilities in the south, while the field remains subject to careful calculations in which local and regional factors intersect.
