Israeli strike kills senior Hamas figure in south Lebanon

An Israeli airstrike on a car deep inside Lebanon killed a senior figure from Palestinian armed group Hamas on Friday evening, a Hamas source and two other security sources told Reuters.

The strike, on the southern edges of the Lebanese port city of Sidon some 60 kilometres (nearly 40 miles) from the frontier, killed Samer al-Hajj, a Hamas security official who works in the nearby refugee camp for Palestinians, Ain al-Hilweh. His bodyguard was critically wounded, the three sources said.

The Israeli military has been carrying out strikes against members of Hamas, allied Lebanese armed group Hezbollah and other factions in Lebanon over the last 10 months, in parallel with the Gaza war.

Those armed groups have launched rockets, drones and artillery attacks across the border into northern Israel.

While most of the hostilities have been limited to the strip of border between Israel and Lebanon, Israeli strikes targeting senior figures in Hezbollah, Hamas and other groups have taken place further north.

An Israeli strike on the outskirts of Beirut in January killed Hamas’s deputy chief Saleh Arouri. Another Israeli strike on the same area last week killed Hezbollah’s top military commander Fuad Shukr.

Hours after Shukr was killed, Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran. Iran and its allies in the region, including Hezbollah and Hamas, have blamed Israel and vowed retaliation.