BEIRUT: Palestinian fighter group Hamas has said that one of its members was killed in an Israeli airstrike in south Lebanon Wednesday that state media said killed three people.
Hamas said the person killed in the attack was Hadi Mustafa, a member of its armed wing in Lebanon from the Rashidiyeh Palestinian refugee camp near the coastal city of Tyre.
The Israeli army announced in a statement that it carried out the attack in the Tyre region. It described Mustafa as the key operative behind attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets around the world.
International media reported that a wrecked car caught fire near the camp.
Lebanon’s state-run news agency said three people were killed in the attack, including a Syrian passing by on a motorcycle.
Lebanon’s ally Hezbollah has clashed with Israel almost daily since the war between Hamas and Israel began in October, while Lebanese Palestinian groups have also claimed responsibility for cross-border attacks.
In a January airstrike that US defence officials attributed to Israel, Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Aruri and six militants were killed on Hezbollah’s headquarters south of Beirut.
Aruri is the most prominent Hamas figure killed during the war.
Israel is countering cross-border artillery fire and targeting targets deep inside Lebanese soil.
Two Hezbollah members were killed in an Israeli airstrike in eastern Lebanon on Tuesday.
According to media reports, at least 322 people have been killed in Lebanon since the start of the conflict, most of them Hezbollah fighters, as well as 56 civilians.
In Israel, the military said at least 10 soldiers and seven civilians were killed in cross-border exchanges.
