TEHRAN – The Military Media Unit of Lebanon’s Hezbollah has published a profile of senior military commander Haitham Ali Al-Tabtabai, known as Sayyed Abu Ali.

Born in the Bashoura district of Beirut on November 5, 1968, Al-Tabtabai joined the ranks of Hezbollah since its founding, completing extensive military and leadership training and taking part in numerous operations. 

This included high-risk missions targeting the occupying Israeli regime’s army positions in Lebanon and collaborators before the liberation of South Lebanon in 2000.

The statement highlighted his prominent battlefield role during the Zionist regime’s aggressions of 1993 and 1996. 

Al-Tabtabai held responsibility for the Nabatieh front in southern Lebanon from 1996 until the 2000 liberation, and was one of the commanders of the 2003 capture operation in Berket al-Naqqar in the occupied Lebanese Shebaa Farms.

He took charge of the Khiam front on the Lebanese border from 2000 until 2008, and led heroic confrontations on that front during the July 2006 Israeli regime aggression.

He later assumed responsibility for Hezbollah’s Intervention Forces. After the martyrdom of prominent commander Imad Mughniyeh, Al-Tabtabai contributed to founding and developing the elite Radwan Force.

Al-Tabtabai was among the Hezbollah commanders who planned and managed operations against takfiri groups on Lebanon’s eastern border and he was entrusted with senior leadership roles across the entire Axis of Resistance in its various arenas.

During Hezbollah’s military support front, which it opened on October 8, 2023, in solidarity with Palestinians facing genocide in Gaza, Al-Tabtabai held the position of Chief of Operations. 

He was one of the senior commanders who managed and supervised Hezbollah’s operations during the nearly two-month “Formidable in Might” battle in 2024. 

After a ceasefire was reached between the Zionist regime and Lebanon on November 27, 2024, he assumed responsibility for Hezbollah’s military command.   

Hezbollah announced the martyrdom of Al-Tabtabai in the Haret Hreik area, describing him as a man who gave his life for Lebanon and its people. The occupying Israeli regime’s strike on an apartment in Haret Hreik in the southern suburb of Beirut on Sunday afternoon resulted in five deaths and 28 injuries, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Health. 

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun highlighted his government’s repeated efforts to maintain peace under a fragile ceasefire, underscoring the need for global powers to enforce international resolutions and protect civilian lives amid escalating tensions.

Al-Tabtabai’s martydom triggered swift reactions from regional resistance movements. 

The Political Bureau of Yemen’s Ansarallah extended its condolences “with immense pride and honor” to Hezbollah Secretary-General Sheik Naeem Qassim, stressing that the Israeli regime’s “treacherous and cowardly crime” would not break the will of the resistance. Instead, it said, such sacrifices would only strengthen its determination.

The Iraqi resistance’s al-Nujaba movement affirmed that “this aggression reflects the malice of the Zionist project in the region, which is built upon undermining stability and targeting societies and their leaders who refuse to submit to its domination.”

Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, mourned him as a martyr who “fell on the path to Jerusalem”. Calling his assassination a criminal act, it praised his role in supporting the Palestinian people and their resistance amid a U.S.-backed genocidal war on Gaza. 

Hamas also condemned the attack on the Dahieh suburb of southern Beirut as a treacherous assault and a clear violation of Lebanese sovereignty, saying it sought to drag Lebanon and the region into an escalation serving only the Zionist regime’s interests.

Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, also mourned Al-Tabtabai, describing him as a resistance fighter, a courageous commander, and a pillar of the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon who stood as a steadfast supporter of the Palestinian factions. 

The Palestinian Fatah Intifada Movement stated, “This cowardly operation is a desperate attempt by the Prime Minister of the Zionist entity to reshuffle the cards and search for an alleged victory to present to his public, even if fabricated, for all resistance leaders are destined for martyrdom.”