On Wednesday, Israel killed a senior Fatah commander in Lebanon, alleging that he was responsible for orchestrating attacks in the West Bank.
In response, Fatah accused Israel of trying to “ignite a regional war” following the killing of Khalil Maqdah. Maqdah was reportedly killed in a missile strike on his car in Sidon, a city in southern Lebanon, according to Fatah and a Lebanese security source.
The Israeli military confirmed the strike, stating that an air force aircraft targeted Khalil Hussein Khalil Al-Maqdah in Sidon.
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They further claimed that Maqdah was the brother of Mounir Maqdah, who leads the Lebanese branch of Fatah’s armed wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.
Israel accused both men of orchestrating terror attacks and smuggling weapons into the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
It was alleged that the pair “collaborated on behalf of” Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
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The attack represents the first reported strike against a senior Fatah member in over 10 months of cross-border clashes between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, following the Gaza war.
Fatah condemned Maqdah’s killing as a “cowardly assassination” carried out by Israeli warplanes in Sidon.
They described him as “one of the leaders” of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades in Lebanon, the movement’s armed wing. According to Fatah, Maqdah played a “central role” in “supporting the Palestinian people and its resistance” during the Gaza conflict and had been significantly involved in supporting resistance cells in the West Bank for years.
A senior Fatah official in Ramallah accused Israel of killing him to provoke a regional conflict.
Tawfiq Tirawy, a member of Fatah’s central committee, told AFP in Ramallah that the “assassination of a Fatah official is further proof that Israel aims to ignite a full-scale war in the region.”
