A commander linked with the Palestinian faction Fatah was killed in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon – just one of several Israeli attacks on Wednesday.
Khalil al-Makdah was killed in a drone attack in the port city of Sidon, 40 kilometres south of Beirut, according to the Lebanese army.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which is the military wing of Fatah, also said that al-Makdah was killed and praised him for his work supporting the Palestinian people, especially after the Gaza attacks.
Mounir al-Makdah, a senior Fatah official in Ain El-Hilweh camp, in Sidon, said his brother had served as “a brigadier general in the Fatah movement and works in the military wing of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades,” in an interview with Lebanese broadcaster Al-Mayadeen.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades is a loose network without a clear hierarchy, and local groups often act on their own.
“Assassinations make us stronger, and this testimony is a badge of honour and the resistance remains solid on the ground,” Mounir al-Makdah told the broadcaster.
Meanwhile violence continued at the Lebanese-Israeli border after new Israeli airstrikes killed two people in southern Lebanon earlier on Wednesday, Lebanese security sources and the Health Ministry said – hours after at least 20 were injured in a separate attack.
Israeli strikes hit two areas early Wednesday morning, one in Beit Leif and another in al-Wazzani. One person was killed in each location, the ministry said.
The Israeli military said it hit a car in Beit Leif near the Israeli border. It said the target was a “Hezbollah terrorist.”
In response to the attack in Beit Leif, the pro-Iranian militia Hezbollah claimed to have sent “a suicide drone” into northern Israel.
The movement also claimed several attacks on Israeli targets, including one in the Golan Heights.
According to Israeli emergency services, a man was injured by shrapnel when a rocket hit his home in Katzrin in the Golan.
Israeli media reported heavy damage in the town and near a military base which was targeted by Hezbollah in the Golan.
Overnight, one person was killed in an Israeli airstrike on eastern Lebanon and at least 20 injured, among them children, in the strikes that targeted Nabi Sheet near the ancient town of Baalbeck in the north-east of the country, the Health Ministry said.
Hezbollah said that the dead man was one of its members. Nabi Sheet is known to be a stronghold of the movement.
Since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip, there have been daily military confrontations between the Israeli army and the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon and other groups in the border area between the countries. There have been deaths on both sides – most of them were members of Hezbollah.
