An Israeli drone strike on a car on the outskirts of the southern Lebanese city of Tire killed a Hamas member from the nearby Palestinian camp of Rashidieh on Wednesday, a source in the faction told Reuters. The source identified him as Hadi Ali Mustafa, but said he was not a senior official in the organization. Two security sources said a Syrian man passing by on his motorcycle also died in the attack, after previously saying the two fatalities had been in Mustafa’s car.
The three sources claimed that the drone, which they identified as Israeli, hovered in the air over the site of the attack for several minutes after it was carried out.
Hamas has a political and military presence in Lebanon, largely based in the camps where Palestinian refugees have lived for decades. The Lebanese militia party Hizbullah launched rockets into Israel in October in support of Hamas. Since then, Israel has been carrying out attacks in Lebanon, mostly limited to the border region, but increasingly widespread to the north and east.
An Israeli military statement said “a plane in the Tire area attacked Hadi Ali Mustafa, a senior agent in the Hamas department responsible for its international terrorist activities. In his position, Hadi directed terrorist cells and activities and prepared terrorist attacks against Israeli and Jewish objectives.
