The leader of the Hamas terrorist organization in Lebanon, Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin, was killed in an airstrike in the Tyre area in the south of the country, Israel said on Monday.
The Israeli confirmation came hours after the Gaza-based group said that he died in the attack along with several of his family members.
According to the joint announcement by the Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), the Israeli Air Force killed Abu el-Amin overnight Sunday.
“Sherif was responsible for coordinating Hamas’s terror activities in Lebanon with Hezbollah operatives. He was also responsible for Hamas’s efforts in Lebanon to recruit operatives and acquire weapons,” the IDF and Shin Bet said.
“He led the Hamas terrorist organization’s force build-up efforts in Lebanon and operated to advance Hamas’s interests in Lebanon, both politically and militarily,” the statement continued.
Media reports placed Abu el-Amin, his wife, son and daughter at the El-Buss refugee camp in the southern Lebanese coastal city of Tyre when they were killed in the strike.
“The western areas of South Lebanon are Hamas’s main stomping grounds and its operatives there, have been responsible for much of the rocket fire targeting Nahariya and towns north of Haifa,” Ynet reported.
Abu el-Amin was employed by UNRWA
Abu el-Amin was an employee of UNRWA, the terror-linked United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees and their descendants.
The NGO UN Watch earlier this year highlighted the Hamas leader’s involvement with UNRWA, including his role as the school principal of the UNRWA-run Deir Yassin Secondary School in El-Buss and his position heading the UNRWA teachers’ union in Lebanon, overseeing 39,000 students in 65 schools.
According to UNRWA, Sherif was suspended without pay in March for three months for violating regulations and was investigated over his political activities.
Dozens of people protested outside the UNRWA offices in Beirut following the suspension.
In a presentation to the Dutch parliament in The Hague in June, UN Watch criticized UNRWA for not firing Abu el-Amin. UN Watch said that Abu el-Amin openly praised Hamas terrorism, including praising the Oct. 7 massacre, writing on Facebook on the day of that attack that “God is the greatest, God is the greatest…”
Three PFLP terrorists killed in Beirut
Also on Monday, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) announced that three of its terrorist operatives were killed in an Israel airstrike overnight Sunday in Beirut.
The strike targeted the upper floor of an apartment building in a residential neighborhood of the Kola district in the center of the Lebanese capital, according to Lebanese media reports.
It is believed to be the first such strike in Beirut proper and not in the southern Dahiyeh suburb since the current conflict with Hezbollah began. Another attack in the Hezbollah stronghold suburb was reported on Monday morning.
The PFLP, which is based in Gaza and Judea and Samaria, identified the targets of the attack as its “military” security chief Mohammad Abdel-Aal, “military” commander Imad Odeh and another member, Abdelrahman Abdel-Aal.
Israel has not confirmed its involvement in the PFLP strikes.
However, the IDF reported overnight that it was attacking Hezbollah terrorist targets in the Bekaa Valley, deep in eastern Lebanon.
On Monday morning, the military announced the interception of a UAV that had entered Israel’s economic waters off the northern coast.
Also, the IDF said overnight that it had intercepted a suspicious aerial target that crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory, triggering alarms in Moshav Ramot Naftali due to the possibility of falling shrapnel from the interception.
On Monday morning, the Lebanon’s National News Agency reported a drone strike on a vehicle near the village of Arzon in the Tyre region. The Saudi Al-Hadath channel reported casualties.
Israel puts conditions on a Hezbollah ceasefire
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz has told his counterparts in 25 countries that enforcing United Nations Resolution Security Council 1701 is the only way that Jerusalem will agree to a truce with the Iranian-backed terror army.
According to the Kan News report on Monday morning, Katz conveyed the message in the last two days following Friday’s targeted killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut.
“The only way acceptable to Israel to stop the fire is to push Hezbollah north of the Litani River and disarm them,” Katz told other foreign ministers, including those from Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy and Canada.
“Only the full implementation of all U.N. Security Council resolutions regarding Lebanon will bring about a ceasefire. As long as this does not happen, Israel will continue its actions to ensure the safety of Israeli citizens and the return of the northern residents to their homes,” he said.
Additionally, Katz told his counterparts that the Nasrallah assassination one of the most justified counterterrorism operations that Israel has ever carried out, noting that Nasrallah was planning attacks on the Jewish state.
He also echoed remarks made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the U.N. General Assembly in New York last week, stating that if Iran attacks Israel, it will retaliate.
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