Ahmad Ghaleb Balout

Ahmad Ghaleb Balout was the commanding officer of Hezbollah's Radwan Force, the organisation's elite ground-assault unit responsible for cross-border operations and deep-penetration raids against Israeli forces. Balout held one of the most operationally significant posts in Hezbollah's military structure, with direct authority over the unit that conducted the most sophisticated attacks during the 2024-2026 Lebanon conflict. The IDF described him as having "directed dozens of attacks against Israeli troops in southern Lebanon during the war". He was killed alongside intelligence chief Muhammad Ali Bazi and aerial-defence head Hussein Hassan Romani in a targeted strike.

Balout was killed on 7 May 2026 when the IDF struck the Dahiyeh neighbourhood of southern Beirut, the first Israeli strike on that district in approximately one month. He was the highest-ranking Hezbollah official killed since November 2025, making his death a significant command-level decapitation during an active Ceasefire window. The strike came three days before Senator Lisa Murkowski's 11 May deadline to file an Iran AUMF and on the same day Iran was reviewing the US MOU delivered via Pakistan. Hezbollah's response was restrained, confined to low-to-medium rocket and drone fire in southern Lebanon with no Israeli casualties reported. The IDF said it has killed more than 220 Hezbollah operatives since the 16 April Lebanon ceasefire.