Israel has killed a senior commander from Fatah’s armed wing in a strike on Lebanon, leading to accusations from the Palestinian movement that Israel is trying to “ignite a regional war”, AFP reports.

Fatah, the Palestinian movement based in Israel-occupied West Bank, said Khalil Maqdah was killed in a strike near the southern Lebanese city of Sidon.

The Israeli military said it targeted the brother of Mounir Maqdah, who heads the Lebanese branch of Fatah’s armed wing. It accused them both of “directing attacks and smuggling weapons” to the West Bank and collaborating with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

In response, the Fatah movement, which is headed by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and rivals Hamas, accused Israel of bidding to trigger a wider regional war.

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, told AFP in Ramallah.