Israeli drone strike in Beirut targeted key Hezbollah logistics figure, Arab media

Shafaq News/ An Israeli drone strike on Mar Elias Street in Beirut on Sunday killed Mahmoud Madi, a key logistics figure in Hezbollah, along with three others, Arab media reported.

Lebanon’s Ministry of Health confirmed that 14 people were injured in the attack.

According to Al-Arabiya, Madi, the owner of Madi Electronics, was alleged to be a supplier of communication devices to Hezbollah. He reportedly played a pivotal role in securing technology for the group, including a recent procurement of pagers and wireless communication devices.

Despite these allegations, Madi’s brother denied any ties between Mahmoud and armed groups, asserting that he was a civilian.

The strike comes after a devastating series of explosions last September involving communication devices linked to Hezbollah. At least 32 people, including two children, were killed, and thousands were injured when pagers and walkie-talkies exploded across Lebanon.

A Hezbollah operative told the Associated Press at that time that the exploding devices were a new model not previously used by the group. A Lebanese security official said approximately 5,000 units of the devices were imported five months ago.

Fragments from the devices pointed to the Rugged Pager AR-924 model, manufactured under Gold Apollo’s branding. However, Gold Apollo, a Taiwanese company, denied any connection to the explosions.

Gold Apollo’s founder, Hsu Ching-Kuang, stated that the company had an agreement with a Hungarian-based firm, BAC, to produce the devices. Hsu described the financial transactions with BAC as "very strange" but did not provide additional details.