Eurasia Press & News
On June 12, 2024, Hezbollah announced the death of Sami Taleb Abdallah, aka al-Hajj Abu Taleb, in an Israeli airstrike on a building in the town of Jwayya in south Lebanon. Three other Hezbollah operatives were killed in the attack. The IDF spokesperson confirmed that the Israeli Air Force had attacked Abdallah, who since 2016 had been in command of Hezbollah’s al-Nasr unit, which operates in the eastern sector of south Lebanon.
The Hezbollah announcement of his death referred to Abdallah as “the shaheed commander”. Since the beginning of the current conflict in October 2023, it was only the second time that Hezbollah had called one of its eliminated operatives “commander,” an expression of his senior position. Hezbollah also published photos and videos of Abdallah, showing him with Hezbollah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah and the commanders of the Iranian Qods Force. According to Hezbollah, Abdallah joined its ranks in 1984, was the commander during the fighting in south Lebanon until the withdrawal of IDF forces in 2000 and in the Second Lebanon War in the summer of 2006, and also led the attacks against Israel in the eastern sector on the Israeli border during Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.
