Israel says targetted Hamas member posing as reporter in Gaza

Jerusalem/Beirut, April 7 (IANS) The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Monday that it has targetted a Hamas militant posing as a journalist in Gaza and killed a Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon.

The IDF said in a statement that the army and the internal security service Shin Bet struck Hamas "terrorist" Hassan Abdel Fattah Mohammed Aslih in the Khan Younis area, southern Gaza, "who operates under the guise of a journalist and owns a press company."

According to the IDF statement, Aslih, a member of Hamas' Khan Younis Brigade, participated in the attack on October 7, 2023, during which "he documented and uploaded footage of looting, arson, and murder to social media."

The official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported earlier in the day that Israeli warplanes bombed a media tent near Nasser Medical Complex Hospital in Khan Younis, killing two journalists and wounding Aslih and eight others.

In another statement, the IDF said it killed Mohammed Adnan Mansour, Hezbollah's artillery commander, in an airstrike in the Taybeh area, southern Lebanon, on Monday.

The IDF said Mohammed directed and carried out numerous projectile attacks toward the Upper Galilee area in northern Israel, Xinhua news agency reported.

Lebanon's Public Health Emergency Operations Centre, affiliated with the Ministry of Public Health, said a person was killed on Monday in an Israeli drone strike targetting a motorcycle in the center of the village of Taybeh, located in the eastern sector of the border area, without providing further details regarding the attack.

Since November 27, 2024, a ceasefire agreement between Lebanon's Hezbollah and Israel has been in effect, putting an end to more than a year of hostilities triggered by the war in Gaza.

Despite the agreement, the Israeli military occasionally carries out strikes in Lebanon, claiming that the operations target Hezbollah "threats".

--IANS

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