An Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon killed a Fatah official on Wednesday, a senior member of the Palestinian group and a security source said.
It marked the first such reported attack on Fatah, the movement led by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, in more than 10 months of cross-border clashes between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement.
“The Israeli strike in Sidon killed (Fatah) group official Khalil Makdah,” said Fathi Abu al-Aradat, a senior member of the group that rivals Gaza’s Palestinian Islamist rulers Hamas.
A Lebanese security source confirmed the report to AFP, saying the strike hit his car.
An AFP correspondent at the site of the attack said a car was struck near the Palestinian camps of Ain al-Helweh and Mieh Mieh, adding rescuers had pulled a body from the charred vehicle.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency said Makdah was killed “in a drone strike on his car”.
Mounir Makdah, who heads the Lebanese branch of Fatah’s armed wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, told broadcaster Al-Mayadeen that his brother Khalil had been killed.
He told the channel his brother had been a commander in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.
Hezbollah and its allies have exchanged regular fire with Israel in support of its ally Hamas since the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 attack on Israel sparked the Gaza war.
