Hezbollah on Wednesday said one of its leaders had been assassinated near Beirut and accused Israel of being behind the killing.

“The Islamic resistance announces the death of one of its leaders, the martyr Hassan Hawlo al-Lakiss, who was assassinated near his house in the Hadath region” east of Beirut, Hezbollah television channel Al Manar said.

“Direct accusation is aimed of course against the Israeli enemy which had tried to eliminate our martyred brother again and again and in several places but had failed, until yesterday evening,” a Hezbollah statement broadcast by the channel said.

“This enemy must bear full responsibility for and all the consequences of this heinous crime,” it added.

A Hezbollah source said Lakiss was very close to the Shiite movement’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

The killing occurred around midnight, soon after Nasrallah had given an interview to Lebanese broadcaster OTV.

Despite the fact that Hezbollah blames Israel for the killing, it should be noted that Hezbollah has been facing a furious slew of attacks by forces inside Lebanon in recent months.

A series of car bomb explosions and other attacks targeting Hezbollah are believed to have been carried out by supporters of the rebel forces in Syria, where Hezbollah is siding with the Assad regime in an extremely cruel three-year civil war.