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Jadra crime scene: The car used by a Hamas official and which Israel is said to be targeting

Photo: Mahmoud Zayyat / AFP

Attack far behind the front: Two people were killed in an air strike in Lebanon. The suspected Israeli attack took place about 30 kilometers south of the Lebanese capital Beirut in a predominantly Sunni region. Israel rarely attacks hostile targets this deep in Lebanon.

According to eyewitnesses, a car was the target of the drone attack in the coastal town of Jadra. The two dead are said to be two uninvolved civilians. It was initially unclear who the drone attack was actually aimed at:

  • Both the Shiite Hezbollah and the Palestinian organization Hamas denied that any members were hit in the attack.

  • However, during Saturday, both the AFP news agency and the AP news agency reported that the target was a high-ranking member of Hamas; Basel Saleh, as the AP identifies him, is said to have survived the attempted targeted killing.

A photographer from the AFP news agency reported from the scene of a damaged car and a burned-out motorcycle as well as bloodstains. The Israeli army initially did not provide any information about the incident.

At the beginning of January, the important exiled leader of Hamas, Saleh al-Aruri, died in an explosion in the Lebanese capital Beirut. The Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, which is allied with Hamas, suspects Israel is behind the action. Several Hezbollah commanders were also targeted.

The two conflicting parties only fought on Friday:

  • According to the Israeli military, Hezbollah fired several rockets into northern Israel.

  • In response to the attack, Israeli fighter jets bombed a military facility in Marun al-Ras, southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah militiamen were said to have been active, the Israeli military said. Warplanes also attacked military bases in Johmor and Nakura. Israel also used artillery to attack targets across the border in southern Lebanon.

Since the beginning of the Gaza war after the Hamas massacre in Israel on October 7th, there have been repeated confrontations between Israel's army and militant groups such as Hezbollah in the Israeli-Lebanese border region. It is the worst escalation since the second Lebanon war in 2006.

According to Hezbollah, a total of 185 of its fighters have been killed since October 7. According to the military, ten Israeli soldiers died in shelling on the northern border. Civilians were also killed on both sides.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Abdollahian warned Israel on Saturday against a large-scale attack on Lebanon. “Any action” towards such an attack would “mean the end of Netanyahu,” he said, referring to the Israeli head of government on his third visit to Lebanon since October 7th.

Israel will "never be able to fight on two fronts," said Iranian Foreign Minister Abdollahian. During his visit to Beirut, the chief diplomat met, among others, Hezbollah boss Hassan Nasrallah, high-ranking Hamas representative Ussama Hamdan and the head of the Palestinian organization Islamic Jihad, which fights alongside Hamas, Siad al-Nachala.

dop/dpa/AFP/AP