Israeli attack kills Hamas operative in Lebanon

The Israeli army said on Wednesday it had killed a senior Hamas operative in an airstrike in southern Lebanon, the latest in a series of targeted killings there after deadly Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7.

The man, Hadi Ali Mustafa, was “a key operative of the Hamas affiliate responsible for its international terrorist activities,” the Israeli military said in a statement. It added that he had been involved in attacks “on Israeli and Jewish targets in several countries around the world.” It provided no further details and its claims could not be independently verified.

In a statement, Hamas’s military wing confirmed Mr. Mustafa’s death but gave no indication of his role within the organization.

The Israeli airstrike on a car near the southern Lebanese coastal city of Tire also killed a passing motorcyclist, Lebanese state media reported. Video from the scene circulating on social media shows a body being loaded onto a stretcher and a vehicle on fire amid panicked onlookers.

Several killings in Lebanon targeted people Israel has called senior figures from Hamas and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, both of which are backed by Iran. In January, Hamas blamed Israel for an explosion that killed Saleh al-Arouri, a senior official of the group, in Beirut’s southern suburbs, although Israel has not publicly claimed responsibility.

As in Gaza and the West Bank, Hamas has a significant presence in Lebanon, where it operates largely from Palestinian refugee camps. Since the start of the war in Gaza on October 7, Hamas, along with Hezbollah and other allied militant groups, has continued to launch rocket attacks into northern Israel from Lebanon’s borders.