Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said his country's military struck Lebanon’s capital for the first time since June, saying it killed Hezbollah’s chief of staff Haytham Tabtabai.

The strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs killed five people and wounded 25 others, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said.

Hezbollah did not immediately comment. Earlier, it said the strike, launched almost exactly a year after a ceasefire ended that Israel-Hezbollah war, threatened an escalation of attacks — just days before Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to visit Lebanon on his first foreign trip.

Tabtabai had led Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Unit. Israel's military said he “commanded most of Hezbollah’s units and worked hard to restore them to readiness for war with Israel." Israel's foreign affairs ministry said his killing came after repeated Hezbollah violations of the ceasefire.

In 2016, the U.S. designated Tabtabai as a terrorist, calling him a military leader who led Hezbollah’s special forces in Syria and Yemen, and it offered up to $5 million for information about him.

Tabtabai had been the apparent successor of Ibrahim Aqil, who was killed in September 2024 in Israeli attacks that wiped out much of Hezbollah’s senior leadership, including longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah.