Hamas announced on Saturday the death of two of its members in Israeli bombings in northern and eastern Lebanon, while the Israeli army confirmed having killed two officials of the Palestinian Islamist movement.
Commander Said Attala Ali, his wife and two of his daughters were killed “in a Zionist bombing of their house” in the Palestinian refugee camp of Beddawi, near Tripoli in northern Lebanon, Hamas said in a statement.
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This is the first attack in this region since the beginning of the conflict between the Palestinian movement and Israel almost a year ago in the Gaza Strip.
In another statement, Hamas announced the death of “Mohammad Hussein al Lawis” in an Israeli bombing in the Saadnayel area, in the east of the country.
For its part, the Israeli army said it had “eliminated two high-ranking terrorists” from the military wing of Hamas.
According to the military, Mohammed Hussein was in charge of Hamas in Judea and Samaria, the name Israel uses to refer to the occupied West Bank, in addition to being “responsible for establishing Hamas in Lebanon, providing weapons for rocket attacks against Israel and the manufacture of sophisticated weapons.”
He also claimed that Said Ali had “carried out terrorist attacks against Israeli targets and worked to recruit Hamas operatives in Lebanon.”
Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, Israel has targeted Hamas officials in Lebanon, which has already announced the death of around twenty of its members.
On Monday, Fatah Sharif Abu al Amin, head of Hamas in Lebanon, was killed with his family in a bombing attributed to Israel against their home in the Palestinian countryside of Al Bass in the south.
On January 2, 2024, Hamas number two Saleh Al Aruri and six other militants were killed in a bombing attributed to Israel south of Beirut, a stronghold of the Lebanese Islamist movement Hezbollah.
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According to UN estimates, nearly 250,000 Palestinian refugees and their descendants still reside in Lebanon. They took refuge in this country after being expelled, or having to flee, after the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.
Under a long-standing agreement, the Lebanese army is kept out of Palestinian camps, where security is guaranteed by Palestinian factions.
CSAS