A pro-Hamas Lebanese militant group said on Friday that two of its senior commanders were killed in an Israeli strike in eastern Lebanon.
Jamaa Islamiya said in a statement that Mosab Saeed Khalaf and Bilal Mohammed Khalaf “died while carrying out their jihadist tasks… in a Zionist strike in the Bekaa” valley.
It was not immediately clear if the two were related.
A Lebanese security source earlier reported that an Israeli drone attack killed one member of the Jamaa Islamiya who was in a vehicle on the road to Meidun in the Bekaa Valley.
Israel’s military confirmed the report, naming the man as Mosab Khalaf and describing him as a “senior terrorist in the Jamaa Islamiya” group.
An Israeli “aircraft struck and eliminated Mosab Khalaf in the area of Meidun in Lebanon”, it said.
“The Jamaa Islamiya terrorist organisation recently planned and promoted a large number of terror attacks from Lebanese territory against Israel in the area of Har Dov, as well as additional areas in northern Israel,” the Israeli statement said.
It also claimed Khalaf “cooperated with the branch of the Hamas terrorist organisation in Lebanon, coordinating and carrying out terror attacks against Israel”.
Friday’s attack came as Israel and Lebanon’s powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah have stepped up near-daily cross-border exchanges in recent weeks.
Hezbollah has said its attacks on Israel are in support of Hamas, which carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7.
Hezbollah said Friday it had launched “dozens of Katyusha rockets” at two Israeli military posts in northern Israel “in retaliation for the enemy’s attacks, specially the cowardly assassination” operation, without elaborating.
Lebanon’s Jamaa Islamiya is a Hamas ally and has claimed attacks on Israel from southern Lebanon.
In March, a Jamaa Islamiya official reportedly survived an Israeli drone strike in eastern Lebanon and the group said three of its fighters were killed in Lebanon’s south.
Earlier Friday the Israeli army said a civilian was killed in the country’s north after anti-tank missiles were fired overnight towards the area of Har Dov, Israel’s term for the disputed Shebaa Farms.
Since October 8 at least 382 people have been killed in Lebanon, including 252 Hezbollah fighters and dozens of civilians, according to an AFP tally.
Israel says 11 soldiers and nine civilians have been killed on its side of the border.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides.
The violence between Hezbollah and Israel, which last went to war in 2006, has fuelled fears of all-out conflict.
