Hamas security official killed in Israeli airstrike
Israeli raids continue on Lebanon and Palestine
Israel launched an airstrike on Friday targeting a car on the outskirts of the coastal city of Sidon in southern Lebanon.
Sources indicate that a Hamas member who was in the targeted car was killed, namely the Hamas security official in the Ain al-Hilweh camp, Samer al-Hajj.
Security official killed
A Lebanese security source confirmed to Agence France-Presse that "an Israeli airstrike targeted the Hamas security official in the Ain al-Hilweh camp, while he was inside his car in the city of Sidon."
Later, the National News Agency, the official news agency in Lebanon, confirmed the killing of "the leader of the Hamas movement and the security official in the Ain al-Hilweh camp, Samer al-Hajj, after an enemy drone targeted his four-wheel drive vehicle." It reported that two civilians were injured, one of whom works at a gas station near the targeted site.
Israeli airstrikes continue
The car caught fire on a road south of the city of Sidon, adjacent to the Ain al-Hilweh camp, the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. Fire engines worked to extinguish the fire before paramedics retrieved a charred body from the car, while Lebanese army units imposed a cordon around the area.
Since the escalation between Hezbollah and Israel began in the wake of the ongoing war in Gaza for 10 months, Israel has repeatedly targeted Hamas leaders or collaborators in Lebanon.
This is the first time Israel has targeted a car inside the city of Sidon since the escalation across the border began 10 months ago.
Israel targets Hamas leaders
On January 2, the deputy head of Hamas’s political bureau, Saleh al-Arouri, was killed along with 6 of his comrades in an airstrike that targeted an apartment in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
On March 13, a Hamas member was killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted his car in the Tyre area.
On May 17, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, mourned a military leader who was killed in an Israeli strike in eastern Lebanon.
The escalation continues amid international efforts to defuse the explosion in the region, after Iran and its allies vowed to respond to the killing of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, and Hezbollah's prominent military commander Fouad Shukr near Beirut. The cross-border escalation has killed at least 561 people in Lebanon, including 366 Hezbollah fighters and at least 116 civilians. Israeli authorities have announced the deaths of at least 22 soldiers and 26 civilians since the escalation began.
