Palestinian leader survives Israeli assassination attempt in Lebanon, son killed: Report
Munir al-Maqdah has reportedly survived an Israeli military attack on his home in the Ein al-Hilweh refugee camp in the Lebanese city of Sidon earlier tonight, the Al Mayadeen news outlet reports, citing a Palestinian source.
Al-Maqdah’s son, Hassan al-Maqdah, is reported to have been killed in the bombing, which has taken the lives of at least five people and injured several more.
Al-Maqdah is a brigadier general with the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade in Lebanon, a coalition of Fatah-aligned Palestinian armed groups, according to reports.
People ‘still under the rubble’ after Israel bombs Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon
The attack [was] on the Palestinian refugee camp in Ein al-Hilweh, which is just to the south of the city of Sidon, in south Lebanon. For now, there are reports of several casualties.
It’s the most densely-populated refugee camp in Lebanon with more than 130,000 Palestinians living there. It’s described as the capital of Palestinian refugees and the attack, as we understand from witnesses there, has destroyed several buildings with many people under the rubble.
Rescue teams are struggling to get inside because of the very narrow alleyways.
This attack, according to reports from there, was targeting a Palestinian faction leader… but he survived, as per the sources there. We will need to follow up on this story to confirm he survived.
But what we know now is there are several people killed, many are still under the rubble, and it comes in parallel with the attacks on Beirut’s southern suburbs, where around eight attacks [took place] and four buildings were flattened. There were also attacks in several areas in south Lebanon.
We have several developments happening simultaneously with the Israeli ground operation or the invasion of Lebanon for the fourth time in 50 years.
Israeli incursion to ‘probe’ Hezbollah strength to determine level of resistance: Analyst
Omar Rahman, a fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, said Israel’s deployment of a limited number of special forces soldiers inside southern Lebanon “makes perfect sense” for the moment, and ahead of a possible full-scale ground invasion.
“Obviously, Israel would be making a fatal mistake to send in, at the start, a massive ground invasion given what has happened in the past fighting Hezbollah,” Rahman told Al Jazeera, referring to Israel’s two earlier invasions of Lebanon in 1982 and 2006, which ended in withdrawal amid Hezbollah’s growing attacks.
Israel’s ground operation is likely an attempt to measure the strength of remaining Hezbollah forces ahead of a larger offensive, Rahman said.
“It’s bombarded the whole of the south. Now it is sending in these special forces, which are a sort of expeditionary force to probe and see the landscape, see the level of Hezbollah resistance that remains in light of both the bombardment and the confusion that must be existing within Hezbollah’s ranks as a result of the assassinations, the killing of Hassan Nasrallah and a lot of the senior leadership,” he said.
Israeli soldiers prepare tanks and armoured personnel carriers near the border with Lebanon in northern Israel on Monday
Israeli military announces three rocket launches from Lebanon
Israeli defence systems intercepted two rocket launches in the Upper Galilee region after crossing into northern Israel from southern Lebanon, while a third rocket fell into an open area in the Baram region.
