Hamas says one of its top leaders in Lebanon was killed in an air strike on the country’s south during the day on Monday.
Fatah Sharif Abu al-Amine, a leader of Hamas in Lebanon as well as a member of its leadership abroad, was the man killed in the airstrike on his home in the Al-Bass camp in south Lebanon, stated Hamas.
The statement added that Fatah was killed along with his wife, son, and daughter in what it described as a “terrorist and criminal assassination.”
Earlier, the National News Agency, the official media arm of the Lebanese government, reported an air strike on Al-Bass near the city of Tyre in what came as the first such attack on a refugee camp.
An earlier casualty during the same day was reported by a secular left-wing group, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), stating three members were killed as a result of a Beirut Kola district strike.
Hamas leaders are not infrequent casualties of Israeli attacks since the war broke out in Gaza a year ago.
In January and August, Israel launched similar attacks, targeting the deputy leader of Hamas, Saleh al-Aruri, and six other militants within the stronghold of Hezbollah in southern Beirut.
An Israel strike also killed Samer al-Hajj, a Hamas commander, when his vehicle was hit in the southern Lebanon port city of Sidon.
While Israel steps up its attacks on Iranian allies in the Middle East, Hezbollah and Hamas, among others, Tehran has said it will not send its soldiers to the Lebanon or Gaza border to confront Israeli force
“There’s no need to send extra or volunteer forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” said foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani, who added that Lebanon and fighters in the Palestinian territories “have the capability and strength to defend themselves against the aggression.”
