Moment Israel wipes out top Hezbollah commander in precision airstrike on his car in Lebanon

This is the moment Israel wipes out a top Hezbollah commander in a precision airstrike on his car in Lebanon.

Footage shows a car driving along a road before a missile strikes the vehicle. A huge fireball can be seen after the missile hit its target, with clouds of smoke billowing into the sky. 

The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said in a statement that the strike in south Lebanon killed Hussein Ali Azqul, a 'significant' operative in Hezbollah's aerial defence unit.

State media and witnesses said the strike happened in the area of Adloun, between the coastal cities of Sidon and Tyre, about 25 miles north of the border with Israel. 

The IDF said Azqul was 'heavily involved in the planning and execution of terrorist attacks against Israel.'

Footage of the airstrike against Azqul shows him driving in a car

An Israeli missile hit the car while another hit the earth slightly in front of the vehicle 

A huge fireball can be seen after the missile hit its target, with clouds of smoke billowing into the sky

A separate Israeli strike overnight Monday to Tuesday killed a fighter in Hezbollah's elite unit, Radwan Forces, the military said, though Hezbollah has not confirmed his death

Hezbollah confirmed in a statement that Azqul had been killed 'on the road to Jerusalem', which refers to him being killed in an Israeli airstrike. 

The Lebanese militant group said this afternoon that it launched an attack on an Israeli base near the city of Acre - its deepest attack into Israel since the start of the Gaza war - 'in response to the Israeli aggression on the town of Adloun' and the 'assassination' of Azqul.

Hezbollah said the strike targeted a location about 9 miles from the border and was the deepest it had launched since the outbreak of the war.

The Israeli military said it had no knowledge of any of its facilities being hit by Hezbollah, but had said earlier on Tuesday that it intercepted two 'aerial targets' off Israel's northern coast.

READ MORE: Israel builds enormous tent city and 'prepares to evacuate a million Palestinians before six-week invasion of Rafah starting in May' - as US warns Hamas is aiming for 'full-scale regional war' 

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Hezbollah published what appeared to be a satellite photo, with the location of the strike symbolised by a flash with a red circle around it that sat halfway between Acre and Nahariyya to the north.

A separate Israeli strike overnight Monday to Tuesday killed a fighter in Hezbollah's elite unit, Radwan Forces, the military said, though Hezbollah has not confirmed his death. 

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and allied groups have been clashing with Israeli forces along the border for more than six months against the backdrop of Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Since October, Israeli strikes have killed about 270 Hezbollah fighters as well as about 50 civilians. 

Hezbollah's rocket and drone fire has killed about a dozen Israeli soldiers and half as many civilians. The shelling has displaced tens of thousands on each side. 

This comes as the Israel-Hamas war entered its 200th day today with fears mounting of an Israeli invasion in the overcrowded south of the besieged Gaza Strip amid calls for hostages to be freed.

The Israeli army carried out intense shelling overnight of Gaza City, witnesses said, with the military saying it also struck Hamas positions in south Gaza.

Shelling and loud explosions were heard in southwest Gaza and the city of Khan Yunis in the south, while air strikes struck near the Bureij refugee camp and artillery fire hit the Nuseirat refugee camp.

Smoke rises following Israeli strikes, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas

People rush to landing humanitarian aid packages dropped over the northern Gaza Strip

The conflict has sparked regional unrest pitting Israel and the US against Iran and allied militant groups across the Middle East

Civil defense teams and locals carry out search and rescue efforts after an Israeli attack hits Rafah, Gaza on April 24, 2024

Israel has said several times that it plans to evacuate displaced civilians from Rafah ahead of a six-week military operation that will likely begin in May

This satellite image from Planet Labs PBC shows tents and other makeshift housing built up around the area of the Tel al-Sultan refugee camp Saturday, April 20, 2024

Palestinian children sit next to the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, April 21, 2024

The war erupted when Palestinian militants poured across the border with Israel on October 7 in an unprecedented Hamas-led attack that resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

In retaliation, Israel launched a military offensive that has killed at least 34,183 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

About 250 people were abducted during the Hamas attack. Israel estimates that 129 captives remain in Gaza, including 34 who the military says are dead.

READ MORE: The baby born an orphan: Tiny child is saved from dead mother's womb after she is killed along with the infant's father and sister in Israeli strike on Rafah 

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German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Tuesday called for the captives' release. 'As long as the hostages are not free, we will not let up,' she said on X. 'Only when they are home will peace have a chance.'

As diplomacy aimed at ending the war stalls, key mediator Qatar said Hamas's political leadership would stay in Doha 'as long as their presence here... is useful and positive in this mediation effort', according to foreign ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari.

The Gulf state, which has hosted Hamas leaders since 2012, said last week it was reassessing its mediation role, fuelling speculation that the Palestinian group could be asked to leave.

Gaza's Civil Defence agency said Monday that about 200 bodies were uncovered of people killed and buried by Israeli forces at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, which Israel has yet to comment on.

The United Nations rights office said it was 'horrified' by the destruction at Nasser and Gaza City's Al-Shifa hospital, the territory's two largest medical facilities, which were both previously raided by Israeli forces.

Demanding an 'independent' probe, UN rights chief Volker Turk noted the 'special protection' awarded to hospitals under international law.

'The intentional killing of civilians, detainees and others who are hors de combat is a war crime,' he said.