Hamas says its leader in Lebanon killed in air strike
BEIRUT
Palestinian group Hamas said its leader in Lebanon was killed Monday in a strike on the country's south, as official media reported a strike on a Palestinian refugee camp.
"Fatah Sharif Abu al-Amine, the leader of Hamas... in Lebanon and member of the movement's leadership abroad" was killed in an air strike on his "home in the Al-Bass camp in south Lebanon", a Hamas statement said.
It said he was killed with his wife, son and daughter in a "terrorist and criminal assassination".
The official National News Agency reported an air strike on Al-Bass near the city of Tyre, saying it was the "first time" the camp had been targeted.
The statement came hours after the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a secular left-wing group, said three of its members were killed in a strike on Beirut's Kola district early Monday.
Monday's drone attack targeted a "flat belonging to Jamaa Islamiya", a Lebanese Islamist group, the security source said.
The group said in a statement that its military security chief Mohammad Abdel-Aal, military commander Imad Odeh, and Abdelrahman Abdel-Aal were killed.
The Israeli military said it had launched fresh strikes on dozens of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon's Bekaa region on Monday.
Israel "will continue to attack powerfully, damage and degrade Hezbollah's military capabilities and infrastructure in Lebanon", the army said in a statement on Telegram.
Israel has repeatedly targeted Hamas officials in Lebanon since the Gaza war erupted almost a year ago.
A strike in January, which a U.S. defense official said was carried out by Israel, killed Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Aruri and six other militants in Hezbollah's south Beirut stronghold.
In August, an Israeli strike on a vehicle in the south Lebanon city of Sidon killed Hamas commander Samer al-Hajj.
Lebanon's official Palestinian refugee camps were created for Palestinians who were driven out or fled during the 1948 war at the time of Israel's creation.
By longstanding convention, the Lebanese army stays out of the camps and leaves the Palestinian factions to handle security.
'Largest displacement'
Television footage showed the partially flattened floor of the building targeted by the strike, in the predominantly Sunni neighbourhood of Kola, near the road linking the capital to Beirut airport.
Israeli attacks have killed hundreds in Lebanon since last Monday, the deadliest day since the country's 1975-1990 civil war.
Lebanon's health ministry reported at least 105 people killed in Israeli strikes on Sunday, with 359 people wounded.
In the last week, Israeli bombardment has killed more than 700 people, including 14 paramedics over a two-day period, the ministry said.
U.N. refugee chief Filippo Grandi said "well over 200,000 people are displaced inside Lebanon" and more than 50,000 have fled to neighbouring Syria.
Prime Minister Mikati said up to one million people may have been uprooted, in potentially the "largest displacement movement" in Lebanon's history.
Yemen strikes
Israeli aggression on Lebanon has sparked fears of an all-out war in the Middle East.
On Monday, the Israeli army said it "successfully intercepted a suspicious aerial target that crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory".
Israel said it also carried out strikes in Yemen on Sunday, targeting Iran-backed Huthi rebel positions.
Huthi media reports said those strikes killed four people and wounded 33.
The raids in Yemen came a day after the Houthis said they launched a missile at an Israeli airport, trying to hit it as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was returning from New York.
The Israeli military has said its operations in Lebanon aim to eliminate Hezbollah's leadership and capacity to attack Israel.
It said the air strike that killed Nasrallah on Friday also "eliminated" another 20 Hezbollah members, including senior leaders.
Israel also said another strike on Saturday killed Nabil Qaouq, a member of Hezbollah's central council.
Hezbollah has yet to officially announce his death, but a source close to the group said Qaouq had been killed.
Lebanon began a three-day national mourning period for Nasrallah on Monday, with flags to fly at half-mast on public buildings. Iraq, Iran and Syria also declared public mourning periods.
Iran has said Nasrallah's killing would would bring about Israel's "destruction".
Calls for halt
World leaders have called for a de-escalation to avoid a wider regional conflict.
French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot met with Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Lebanon on Sunday night — the first high-level foreign diplomat to visit since the Israeli strikes intensified — and said Paris sought "an immediate halt" to Israeli strikes.
Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry issued a statement early Monday, calling for Lebanon's "sovereignty and territorial integrity" to be respected.
U.S. President Joe Biden — whose government is Israel's top arms supplier — said Sunday a wider war "really has to be avoided".
Pope Francis, asked about Israeli air strikes on civilians, said a country "goes beyond morality" when defense is not proportional to the attack.
In Gaza, the territory's civil defense agency said Israeli strikes Sunday killed several people.
Hamas's unprecedented Oct. 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.
Of the 251 hostages seized by militants, 97 are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,595 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. The U.N. has described the figures as reliable.