Israeli strike kills Hamas operative in Lebanon
Israel allows a small food convoy into northern Gaza
BEIRUT >> The Israeli military said on Wednesday that it had killed a senior Hamas operative in an airstrike in southern Lebanon, the latest in a series of targeted killings there following the deadly Hamas-led attacks against Israel on Oct. 7.
The man, Hadi Ali Mustafa, was “a significant operative in Hamas’s department responsible for its international terrorist activities,” the Israeli military said in a statement. It added that he had been involved in attacks “against Israeli and Jewish targets in various countries around the world.” It provided no further details, and its claims could not be independently verified.
In a statement, Hamas’ military wing confirmed that Mustafa had been killed but gave no indication of his role within the organization.
The Israeli airstrike, on a car near the southern Lebanese coastal city of Tyre, also killed a passing motorcyclist, Lebanese state media reported. Video from the scene that circulated on social media shows a body being loaded onto a stretcher and a vehicle burning amid panicked onlookers.
Several killings in Lebanon have targeted people whom 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 a blast that killed Saleh al-Arouri, a senior official in the group, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, although Israel has not publicly claimed responsibility.
As it does in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, Hamas has a sizable presence in Lebanon, where it operates largely out of Palestinian refugee camps. Since the war in Gaza began on Oct. 7, Hamas, along with Hezbollah and other allied militant groups, have continued to launch rocket attacks into northern Israel from within Lebanon’s borders.
In another development, Israel has allowed a small convoy carrying food to enter the northern Gaza Strip directly through an Israeli border crossing for the first time since the war with Hamas began Oct. 7, as global pressure intensifies to let more desperately needed aid into the territory, where hundreds of thousands are at risk of starvation.
The Israeli military said that it had allowed six trucks carrying supplies from the United Nations World Food Program to enter the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, not far from the Israeli village of Be’eri, where more people were killed in the Hamasled Oct. 7 attack than in any other community. The World Food Program said that its delivery, containing food for 25,000 people, was its first since Feb. 20 to the northern part of the enclave.
For five months, aid groups had been able to reach northern Gaza only by entering through one of two southern border crossings, and then attempting a difficult and hazardous drive to the north. Few had successfully made the trip to distribution points. After the convoy Tuesday cleared Israeli inspection, it crossed into Gaza through a gate on a security fence that had not previously been used for aid deliveries, the Israeli military said.
The food was only a sliver of what would be needed to feed hungry civilians in Gaza suffering from extreme food shortages, particularly in the north, where the Israeli army invaded in late October and where some residents have resorted to eating leaves and animal feed