Fatah official Khalil Maqdah, who was killed in a strike attributed to the Israeli army, August 21, 2024. (Courtesy of our correspondent Muntasser Abdallah)
BEIRUT — An Israeli airstrike on a vehicle in the city of Saida on Wednesday killed Khalil al-Maqdah, the brother of Mounir al-Maqdah, a leader of the Palestinian Fatah movement.
Mounir was the leader of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of the Fatah movement, which his brother became a part of.
The Israeli army confirmed on Wednesday that it carried out an "airstrike" targeting Maqdah. It accused Maqdah and his brother Mounir of "acting on behalf of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard," and of being "involved in organizing terrorist attacks" and "weapons trafficking" to the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli army website previously reported that numerous modern weapons were confiscated during the operation conducted by Israeli General Security to thwart Maqdah’s actions. Additionally, the army suspected that the Fatah leader had been recruiting West Bank residents to engage in "terrorist" operations against Israel.
Mounir has publicly said many times that he supports al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Palestine financially and militarily, according to our correspondent in the South. The brothers have both provided the fighters in the West Bank with money and weapons, he added.
The victim, Khalil, is also a member of Fatah's Palestinian National Security and is in charge of Fatah's retiree affairs. Mounir and Khalil are both residents of the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp, southeast of Saida.
Later on Wednesday, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades announced in a statement the death of Khalil: "The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Liberation Movement - Fatah, proudly announce to our Palestinian people and to the free people of the Arab and Islamic nations the heroic martyrdom of Khalil al-Maqdah."
The statement praised the deceased's role "in supporting resistance cells against the Zionist occupation in the West Bank."
The killing of Maqdah marks the first attack in Lebanon targeting Fatah, a Palestinian faction that rivals Hamas, since the beginning of the Gaza war.
Fatah's military wing has been carrying out military operations inside Palestine mainly in the West Bank since the beginning of the war in October but has not launched any attack from Lebanese territory.
Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in near-daily hostilities since Oct. 8, 2023, amid the Hamas-Israel war in Gaza. These clashes have resulted in at least 583 deaths in Lebanon, primarily Hezbollah fighters but also at least 108 civilians, according to L'Orient Today's count. In Israel and the occupied Syrian Golan, 23 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed, according to Israeli authorities.
Additional reporting by Muntasser Abdallah.