Israel kills Hamas commander in Lebanon strike / Photo: Mahmoud ZAYYAT - AFP
Israel kills Hamas commander in Lebanon strike
Israel killed a commander of Palestinian militant group Hamas on Friday in a pre-dawn strike in the Lebanese port city of Sidon that also killed his adult son and daughter.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam condemned the strike as a "flagrant attack on Lebanese sovereignty" and a breach of the November 27 ceasefire with Israel.
"Overnight, the (army and the domestic security agency Shin Bet) conducted a targeted strike in the Sidon area, eliminating the terrorist Hassan Farhat, commander of Hamas's western arena in Lebanon," the Israeli military said in a statement.
It said that Farhat had orchestrated multiple attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians during the hostilities that followed the outbreak of war in Gaza in October 2023.
They included rocket fire on the Israeli town of Safed on February 14, 2024 that killed an Israeli soldier, the military added.
Hamas's military wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, confirmed in a statement released in Gaza that Farhat had been killed in the strike along with his son Hamza, who was also a member, and his adult daughter Jenan.
An AFP correspondent saw the fourth-floor flat still on fire after the strike, which caused heavy damage to the apartment block and neighbouring buildings and sparked panic in the densely populated neighbourhood.
Lebanese state media had reported the 3:45 am (0045 GMT) strike on Sidon, saying at least three people were killed.
"A hostile drone raided a residential apartment... causing two successive explosions that led to a fire and extensive damage," the state-run National News Agency reported.
Emergency workers rushed to the scene where they recovered "the bodies of three martyrs," NNA said.
The Lebanese prime minister called for "maximum pressure on Israel to force it to halt these continual attacks which target various districts, many of them residential areas".
Israel struck south Beirut earlier this week, killing a Hezbollah Palestinian liaison officer in only the the second raid on the capital since the November ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese militant group.
The Lebanese health ministry reported four dead in that strike, including a woman.
Lebanese leaders condemned the attack but Israel said it was in response to recent unclaimed rocket fire that Hezbollah insists it had no hand in.
Hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah spiralled into all-out conflict last September, and the group remains a target of Israeli air strikes despite the November ceasefire.
Under the truce, Hezbollah is supposed to redeploy its forces north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the Israeli border, and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.
Israel is supposed to withdraw its forces across the UN-demarcated Blue Line, the de facto border, but has missed two deadlines to do so and continues to hold five positions it deems "strategic".
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T.Naim--al-Hayat
