Strike against military arm
Israel kills senior Hamas commander
March 13, 2024, 10:27 p.m
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Israel kills members of Hamas’ armed wing with several fighter jet missions. In Rafah, a commander has been “eliminated,” the military says. He is said to have been responsible for coordinating attacks. And in Lebanon there is a person responsible for terrorist attacks.
The Israeli army says it deliberately killed an important commander of the Islamist Hamas in Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip. Based on intelligence information, a fighter jet “precisely attacked and eliminated the terrorist in Hamas’ operational unit in the Rafah area,” the military said in a statement. Muhammad Abu Hasna was active in the military wing of the terrorist organization Hamas. He was also involved in “appropriating humanitarian aid supplies and distributing them to Hamas terrorists.”
Hasna also coordinated the activities of various Hamas units. He was also responsible for an operations center that passed on information about Israeli army positions to help with Hamas attacks. His targeted killing would significantly damage the operational capabilities of various Hamas units in Rafah, the statement said.
Israel is planning a military offensive in Rafah despite international warnings. In the city on the border with Egypt, it is estimated that 1.5 million Palestinians are currently seeking protection from the fighting in other areas of the Gaza Strip in a confined space and under miserable conditions.
Air strike against Hamas member in Lebanon
According to the radical Islamic Hamas, one of its members was previously killed in an air strike in southern Lebanon. Hadi Mustafa, a member of Hamas’s armed wing in Lebanon from the Palestinian refugee camp of Rashidiyeh near the coastal city of Tyre, was killed in the attack, the Palestinian organization said. According to the army, the man is said to have been responsible for terrorist attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets in several countries. A photographer saw the remains of a burned-out car near the camp. According to the official Lebanese news agency, a Syrian passerby who happened to be at the site of the airstrike was also killed.
Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, fighting has occurred almost daily between the Hamas-allied Hezbollah militia in Lebanon and the army in neighboring Israel. Palestinian groups in Lebanon also claim attacks across the border. Israel’s attacks, in turn, are being carried out ever deeper into Lebanon.
According to security sources, two people were killed in Israeli attacks on Hezbollah targets in eastern Lebanon on Tuesday and one person was killed on Monday. According to one count, at least 321 people have died since fighting began in Lebanon – most of them Hezbollah fighters, but also 55 civilians.
Fear of escalation in Lebanon
According to the military, at least ten soldiers and seven civilians were killed on the Israeli side during this time. In January, Israeli attacks on a Hezbollah stronghold in southern Beirut killed Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Aruri and six fighters.
The attack near Tire is fueling fears of a further escalation in clashes between the Israeli military and militants in Lebanon because it reportedly took place relatively close to the city and residential areas. In recent days, Israeli airstrikes deep in northeast Lebanon – about 100 kilometers from the border with Israel – have sparked fears that hostilities are expanding.
The war was triggered by the worst massacre in Israel’s history, carried out by terrorists from Hamas and other extremist Palestinian organizations on October 7th in Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip. They murdered more than 1,200 people and abducted 250 others to the coastal strip.