By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

A member of the Islamic Group in Lebanon was assassinated on Thursday morning in an Israeli drone strike on a car in the Bekaa Valley.

The incident is part of a series of assassinations conducted by Israel against the group’s leaders in Lebanon over the past few months.

The Lebanese News Agency reported that Muhammad Hamid Jabara, a leader of the Islamic Group, was assassinated in an airstrike in the town of Ghazzeh in the western Bekaa. 

The report explained that an Israeli drone targeted his car with a missile on the road to the town of Ghazzeh, resulting in the complete destruction of the vehicle and Jabara’s death.

The Islamic Group in Lebanon mourned Jabara, condemning the Israeli “crime” and stating that it would not deter them from their role in defending Lebanon and supporting Gaza.

In another incident, the Israeli air force targeted a different car in the mountains of Batm, in the Tyre District of southern Lebanon, causing injuries. The identities of the injured are not yet known, as reported by the Lebanese News Agency.

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Last month, another leader of the Islamic Group was assassinated by Israel when his car was targeted in the town of Khiyara in the Western Bekaa. Additionally, the group announced that two other leaders were assassinated by Israel in April, also in the Western Bekaa.

Earlier this morning, Al-Jazeera reported an Israeli airstrike targeting the vicinity of the town of Zebqin in southern Lebanon. 

On Wednesday night, Israeli jet fighters and drones launched attacks on the towns of Taybeh and Aitaroun in southern Lebanon, with Israeli artillery shelling the surroundings of several border towns.

The Israeli army stated that Hezbollah fired 80 rockets towards populated areas in the north on Wednesday. In response, the Israeli military bombed Hezbollah’s military infrastructure in various areas of southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah announced that its fighters had bombarded the settlements of Sa’ar and Gisher Haziv in the Western Galilee, northern Israel, with dozens of Katyusha rockets. 

They also targeted seven settlements, including Kabri, Kiryat Shmona, and Meron, as well as the headquarters of the Sahel Battalion in Beit Hillel, in retaliation for Israel’s targeting of civilians in southern Lebanon.

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Heightened Tensions

Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.  

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 38,848 Palestinians have been killed, and 89,459 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.

Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip. 

Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’. 

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Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.

The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.  

The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.

Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety. 

(PC, AJA)