A commander with ties to the Palestinian faction Fatah was killed in an Israeli attack in southern Lebanon on Wednesday.
According to the Lebanese army, Khalil al-Makdah was killed in a drone strike in the port city of Sidon, 40 kilometers south of Beirut.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of Fatah, also reported that al-Makdah had been killed and praised him for his work in support of the Palestinian people, especially after the attacks in Gaza.
Mounir al-Makdah, a senior Fatah official in the Ain El-Hilweh camp in Sidon, said in an interview with Lebanese broadcaster Al-Mayadeen that his brother had served as a “brigadier general in the Fatah movement and worked in the military wing of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.”
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades are a loose network with no clear hierarchy. Local groups often act on their own.
“Killings make us stronger and this testimony is a badge of honour and the resistance on the ground remains strong,” Mounir al-Makdah told the broadcaster.
Since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip, there have been daily military clashes between the Israeli army and the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon and other groups in the border area between the countries. There have been deaths on both sides – most of them members of Hezbollah.
