IDF strike kills Hamas’s Lebanon chief, an UNRWA teacher; 3 PFLP men killed in Beirut
UN agency says Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin, hit in southern Lebanon, was put on leave due to his ‘alleged political activities’; attack on PFLP appears to be first in heart of capital
Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon and central Beirut overnight killed the top Hamas official in Lebanon and senior members of another Palestinian terror group, the organizations and the Israel Defense Forces said Monday.
Hamas said its leader in Lebanon, Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin, was killed, along with his wife, son, and daughter, in a strike that targeted their house in a Palestinian refugee camp in the southern city of Tyre early Monday. A statement from the terror group identified him as a “successful teacher and excellent [school] principal.”
The Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security agency in a joint statement confirmed that Sherif, who they described as the “head of the Lebanon branch of the Hamas terror organization,” was killed in the strike.
According to the military, Sherif was responsible for coordinating Hamas’s activity in Lebanon with Hezbollah, as well as Hamas’s “force build-up efforts in Lebanon, in the field of recruiting operatives and procuring weapons.”
He “worked to advance the interests of Hamas in [Lebanon], both politically and militarily,” the statement said.
Reports in Palestinian media said Sherif was head of the teachers’ union for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, which provides education services to nearly 40,000 students in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.
UNRWA confirmed to The Times of Israel in a statement that Sherif had been employed by the agency, but noted that he had been suspended in March.
Sherif “was an UNRWA employee who was put on administrative leave without pay in March, and was undergoing an investigation following allegations that UNRWA received about his political activities,” UNRWA said.
Israel has long accused the agency of employing members of Hamas and other terror groups, allowing them to steep future generations in virulent anti-Israel ideology. Several donor countries briefly cut aid to the agency after Israel provided evidence that employees took part in Hamas’s October 7 massacre.
Sherif’s suspension in March sparked large demonstrations and strikes by teachers demanding his reinstatement.
The Palestinian Refugees Portal news site reported in early June that Sherif was set to be reinstated, citing a press release from a Damascus-based group representing Palestinian refugees in Syria and Lebanon that said an arrangement had been found to drop the probe and end the teacher strike.
A “commitment” was reached “not to prosecute any employee on the basis of his national affiliation,” according to the press release.
Pictures shared on social media following his death showed Sherif speaking in front of a UNRWA school and receiving a certificate of appreciation from UNRWA.
According to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency, the strike on the al-Bass camp in Tyre was the first there during the current round of hostilities.
First strike in heart of Beirut
In Beirut’s predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Kola, a strike on an apartment building killed three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the group said, marking the first time Israel carried out an attack in the heart of capital since the outbreak of the war in Gaza last year.
Television footage showed the partially flattened floor of the building targeted by the strike, near a road linking the capital to its airport. At least three people were killed and another 16 were wounded according to an official with Lebanese Civil Defense, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
PFLP said its military security chief Mohammad Abd al-Aal, military commander Imad Odeh, and another member, Abdelrahman Abd al-Aal, were killed in the strike.
The IDF later confirmed carrying out the strike, killing the PFLP operatives including the commander of the terror group in Lebanon.
According to the military and Shin Bet, the PLFP military chief (named by Israel as Nidal Abd al-Aal), was involved in planning and advancing terror attacks in the West Bank.
The IDF and Shin Bet said Abd al-Aal was behind a bombing attack on a bus in the settlement of Beitar Illit in March 2023, and a shooting attack in Huwara in the same month, the latter of which wounded two soldiers.
The military also said its warplanes hit dozens of Hezbollah targets in the Beqaa Valley region of Lebanon overnight, including rocket launchers and arms depots. It said it also attacked sites in southern Lebanon being used by Hezbollah for terror operations against Israel.
While dwarfed by Hezbollah in Lebanon, PFLP and Hamas have been taking part in the fighting against Israel alongside the larger Iran-backed terror group.
The IDF said its air defenses also successfully intercepted a drone that crossed into Israeli territory from Lebanon overnight and that sirens were activated in the area of the northern border town of Ramot Naftali due to falling shrapnel following the interception.
Another drone was shot down by a Navy ship over Israel’s territorial waters in the north of the country on Monday morning. The military did not specify where the drone was launched from, but according to its initial assessments, it may have been heading for offshore infrastructure at the Karish gas field.
מצ״ב תיעוד כלי הטיס הבלתי מאוייש שחצה למרחב הימי בצפון הארץ מוקדם יותר היום, כלי הטיס יורט על ידי ספינת טילים של חיל הים pic.twitter.com/OIxiNwVa6K
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) September 30, 2024
Israel has turned its focus from Gaza to Lebanon in recent days, carrying out strikes on Hezbollah targets and killing the terror group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, on Friday.
Israeli drones hovered over Beirut for much of Sunday, with the loud blasts of new airstrikes echoing around the Lebanese capital. Displaced families spent the night on benches at Zaitunay Bay, a string of restaurants and cafes on Beirut’s waterfront.
Monday’s attack in the Kola district appeared to be the first strike within Beirut’s city limits, though Israel has carried out several strikes in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, a Hezbollah stronghold.
Syrians living in southern Lebanon who had fled Israeli bombardment had been sleeping under a bridge in the Kola neighborhood for days, residents of the area said.
The IDF said that it struck dozens of Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon and the Beqaa Valley on Sunday alone.
A wide wave of strikes hit over 120 command rooms belonging to various Hezbollah units and other facilities where operatives were planning to carry out attacks, according to the military.
The IDF said the strikes were a “significant blow” to Hezbollah’s command and control.
Israeli fighter jets struck also some 45 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon’s Kafra on Sunday afternoon, the military said.
According to the IDF, the sites included weapon depots and other infrastructure.
In the evening, dozens more Hezbollah sites in Lebanon were struck by IAF fighter jets, the IDF said. According to the military, among the targets was a rocket launcher used to target the northern town of Sde Eliezer earlier in the day.
מטוסי קרב של חיל האוויר, בהכוונת פיקוד הצפון, תקפו משעות הצהריים עשרות רבות של מטרות טרור של חיזבאללה ברחבי לבנון, בהן המשגר ממנו בוצעו השיגורים מוקדם יותר היום למרחב שדה אליעזר>> pic.twitter.com/0ORnwhipE9
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) September 29, 2024
Several more rocket launchers aimed at Israel, buildings where Hezbollah stored weapons, and other buildings used by the terror group were struck, the IDF added.
Lebanon’s health ministry reported at least 105 people killed in Israeli strikes on Sunday, with 359 people wounded. It did not say how many were civilians.
Hezbollah fired some 90 rockets at northern Israeli towns throughout Sunday, even after Nasrallah’s killing. There were no reports, however, of any injuries or damage in Israel.
In one attack late Sunday, the terror group launched a surface-to-surface missile at the city of Haifa, setting off sirens in dozens of towns.
According to the IDF, the missile was successfully intercepted by air defenses. The large spread of sirens was due to the interception attempts and fears of falling shrapnel.
Earlier on Sunday, the IDF Home Front Command eased restrictions in some parts of the Haifa area, allowing schools to resume. The change in guidelines did not apply to the Krayot area, north of Haifa.
Under the new restrictions, schools in Haifa, Daliyat al-Karmel, Isfiya, and other towns in the Haifa Bay area and Carmel region would be allowed to operate if an adequate shelter is nearby and can be reached in time.
Restrictions on gatherings have also been eased in those areas, to 30 outdoors and 300 indoors.
Hezbollah began launching cross-border attacks against Israel on October 8, claiming to be operating in solidarity with Hamas in Gaza, which launched a terror onslaught the day before that triggered the ongoing war in the Strip. Hamas and other groups have also fired into Israel from Lebanon on sporadic occasions.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot arrived in Lebanon on Sunday night, the first high-level foreign diplomat to visit since the Israeli airstrikes intensified.
Barrot told Prime Minister Najib Mikati that Paris sought “an immediate halt” to Israeli strikes.
Israeli military operations in Lebanon seek to degrade Hezbollah’s capacity to attack Israel, eliminate the group’s military leadership and rid the border areas of fighters and Hezbollah infrastructure, an Israeli security official said Friday.
Israeli leaders say they want tens of thousands of citizens displaced from the north due to Hezbollah’s near-daily attacks to be able to safely return.
The military said dozens of its warplanes had also attacked targets of Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen on Sunday. Houthi-linked media reports said the strikes killed four people and wounded 33.
The Yemen raids came a day after the Houthis said they targeted Ben Gurion Airport with a missile in the latest of countless attacks on Israel and on international shipping lanes in the Mediterranean, which the terror group also claims are in solidarity with Hamas.
Separately, Israel’s military said the airstrike that killed Nasrallah had killed another 20 Hezbollah members. Earlier strikes killed Nasrallah’s righthand man Fuad Shukr and the head of the elite Radwan Force, Ibrahim Aqil.
Israel also said Nabil Qaouk, a member of Hezbollah’s central council, was killed in a strike on Saturday. Hezbollah later confirmed his death.
UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi said “well over 200,000 people are displaced inside Lebanon” and more than 50,000 have fled to neighboring Syria.
Mikati said up to one million people may have been uprooted, in potentially the “largest displacement movement” in Lebanon’s history.
In northern Gaza, Hamas’s civil defense said Israeli strikes Sunday night killed several people.
The IDF said its fighter planes targeted Hamas terrorists operating a command center from a building that was previously used as a school there.
The army said it took many steps ahead of time to reduce harm to civilians in the strike, including choosing more precise weapons and conducting aerial observations of the site ahead of time.
The United States has urged a diplomatic resolution to the conflict in Lebanon but has also authorized its military to reinforce in the region.
US President Joe Biden, asked if an all-out war in the Middle East could be avoided, said “It has to be.” He said he would soon be talking to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Times of Israel staff and agencies contributed to this report.
