Hezbollah mourns fighter killed in Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon

By Wassim Seif El Din

BEIRUT (AA) - The Lebanese Hezbollah group announced Monday that one of its fighters was killed in an Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon.

In a statement, it identified the fighter as Hussein Ali Hussein Suleiman, saying he was killed "on the road to Jerusalem," in reference to Hezbollah’s fight in support of Palestinian resistance groups facing the Israeli military’s devastating onslaught in Gaza.

The Lebanese Health Ministry said earlier that one person was killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a car in the village of Deir Qanoun El Ain in Tyre district.

The Israeli army claimed that Suleiman was a prominent member of Hezbollah's rocket and missile unit.

The latest fatality brought to 417 the number of Hezbollah fighters killed in clashes with Israeli forces since Oct. 8 last year, according to an Anadolu tally.

Fears of a full-fledged war between Israel and Hezbollah have grown amid an exchange of cross-border attacks, especially after the July 30 assassination of senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut.

The escalation comes against the backdrop of a deadly Israeli onslaught on Gaza which has killed over 40,100 people since last October following an attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar