Illustrative image. (The Israeli Defense Forces)
An Israeli strike on August 9 killed a military commander of the Palestinian Hamas Movement in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported that the commander, Samer al-Hajj, was traveling in a SUV when it was struck by two missiles. A Hamas source and two other security sources told Reuters that al-Hajj’s bodyguard was also critically wounded in the strike.
In a joint statement claiming responsibility for the assassination, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and the Shin Bet security agency said that al-Hajj was responsible for “advancing terror attacks and projectile launches from Lebanon toward Israeli territory.”
Al-Hajj was the commander of Hamas’s military forces in the Ein al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp near Sidon, and responsible for “recruiting and training terrorists to attack the State of Israel,” the statement added.
Hamas’ military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, mourned al-Hajj in a statement, vowing to continue “the path of resistance” against Israel.
Separately, the IDF announced that it also struck targets of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon on August 9, including several rocket launchers in the town of Kfarhamam which were primed for an attack on northern Israel.
The military added that other Hezbollah infrastructure was struck in the towns of Ayta ash-Shab, Markaba, Mhaibib and Kafr Kila.
The recent Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon, including the one that killed al-Hajj, will likely provoke a fierce response from Hezbollah. The group responded in the past to Israeli attacks on its allies in Lebanon.
Hezbollah and its allies began launching near-daily attacks against the IDF in support of Hamas and other armed factions in the Gaza Strip after the outbreak of the Israeli war on the Palestinian enclave last October.
So far, the confrontation has resulted in 26 civilian deaths in Israel and the occupied Golan as well as the deaths of at least 18 soldiers and security officers. On the Lebanese side, more than 600 people have been killed, including 384 fighters of Hezbollah and over 100 civilians.
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