BEIRUT –
Israel said it killed a top commander with Hezbollah’s missile and rocket unit Tuesday as the Israeli military traded fire with Hezbollah again and the death toll from a massive Israeli bombing campaign climbed to nearly 560 people.
Military officials said Ibrahim Kobeisi, who joined Hezbollah in the 1980s, was responsible for launches towards Israel and planned a 2000 attack in the Mount Dov region in which three Israeli soldiers were kidnapped and killed.
He was killed in a strike on Beirut, the military said, adding that “other key commanders” were with Kobeisi at the time of the strike. But officials did not say whether any of the others were killed or wounded.
Meanwhile, thousands of people fled from southern Lebanon with the two sides on the brink of all-out war.
Displaced families slept …