SIDON: The Israeli military killed a senior fighter from Fatah’s armed wing on Wednesday in a strike on Lebanon, leading to accusations from the Palestinian movement that Israel is trying to ignite a regional war.

Fatah, which is based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, said Khalil Maqdah died in an attack near the southern Lebanese city of Sidon. The Israeli army said it targeted the brother of Mounir Maqdah, who heads the Lebanese branch of Fatah’s armed wing.

Fatah, which is headed by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and rivals the Gaza Strip’s Hamas, responded by accusing Israel of seeking to trigger a wider war. Maqdah’s killing marks the first such attack on a senior Fatah member in more than 10 months of cross-border clashes between Israel and Hezbollah movement during the Gaza conflict.

The “assassination of a Fatah official is further proof that Israel wants to ignite a full-scale war in the region,” Tawfiq Tirawy, a member of Fatah’s central committee, said in Ramallah. The strike came only hours after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken left apparently empty-handed after a tour of the Middle East aimed at reaching a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza.

Two people killed and 10 children injured in Gaza strike

On the ground, Gaza was again rocked by air strikes, according to witnesses. Gaza’s civil defence agency said two people were killed and 10 children injured in an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter.

The Israeli military said its air force had “conducted a precise strike on Hamas who were operating inside a command and control centre” located in the school compound.

A UN official said death “seems to be the only certainty” for Gaza’s 2.4 million people, with no way to escape Israel’s bombardment. “Absolutely nowhere is safe,” Louise Wateridge, a spokeswoman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), said from Gaza.

As tensions escalated, Lebanon’s health ministry said earlier Israeli strikes in the country’s east killed one person and wounded 20, hours after four were killed in the south. Cross-border skirmishes have taken place almost daily between Israel and Hezbollah, but fears of a greater crisis soared when Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed on a visit to Tehran on July 31.

Israeli government spokesman David Mencer urged the Lebanese to “rid themselves” of Hezbollah. “Lebanon will be held responsible for the terrorism emanating, originating from its own territory whether it controls Hezbollah or not,” he said.

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2024