Three killed, 13 injured in Israeli strike on north Lebanon's Tripoli

TRIPOLI — The Israeli army killed three people and injured 13 others in a drone strike on the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli on Tuesday, the first such attack north of Beirut since Israel and Hezbollah signed a cease-fire agreement in November 2024.

The Israeli army shortly after the attack, claimed to have targeted "a key Hamas figure in the Tripoli area," and later announced the the killing of Mehran Mustafa Baajour, "a senior Hamas commander in Lebanon.”

According to information from L'Orient Today's correspondent in the North, Israeli drones fired two consecutive missiles at a CRV 4x4 vehicle on the Beddawi Airounieh-Nefaa road, near the Beddawi Palestinian refugee camp, located about five kilometers north of the center of Tripoli. Another nearby car also caught fire.

The Ministry of Health later announced that three people had been killed and 13 injured in the attack. L'Orient Today's correspondent reported an additional death in the strike, naming, in total, three people: Baajour and Ali Hamaoui, who were both in the targeted van, and the owner of a garage located near the site of the attack, a man named Omar Zahra.

According to the Israeli army, Baajour “led and coordinated numerous terrorist operations against the Israeli army and Israeli citizens."

"During the current war," the statement reads, referring to the war that supposedly ended with the November cease-fire, "he orchestrated rocket attacks against Nahariya, Kiryat Shmona, and other Israeli cities.”

The Israeli army claimed that Baajour “held a central command position within Hamas in Lebanon," and had strengthened the group's military presence in the country. His assassination, the statement continued, represents a “major blow to Hamas' activities in Lebanon.”

While Israel has continued to attack Lebanon consistently since the ostensible truce came into effect, killing more than 195 people.

During last year's all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah, the former targeted northern Lebanon on several occasions, including a deadly bombing in Zghorta district that killed several civilians, and a drone strike on an apartment in the Beddawi refugee camp.