UPDATE - Israeli army claims to kill senior leader in Lebanese Jamaa Islamiya group

ADDS JAMAA ISLAMIYA STATEMENT

By Anadolu staff

JERUSALEM (AA) – The Israeli army claimed to have killed a senior leader in the Lebanese Jamaa Islamiya group Friday with a drone strike in southern Lebanon.

The army, in a statement cited by Israeli media, including the Ynet website, identified the target of the strike as Mosab Khalaf, who it accused of carrying out attacks against Israel.

It added that he was coordinating with Hamas’ armed wing in Lebanon to carry out attacks, mostly attacks on the Mount Dov area and others in northern Israel.

Meanwhile, Jamaa Islamiya -- a Lebanese Sunni political party that has an armed wing -- mourned two of its members, including Khalaf, killed in the airstrike.

The Islamist group said they were killed "while performing their jihadist duty in defense of their people in the south (Lebanon) and in support of our people in Palestine."

Earlier, the official Lebanese National News Agency (NNA) said two people were killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting a car in the Western Beqaa District of eastern Lebanon.

Tension has flared along the border between Lebanon and Israel amid intermittent exchanges of weapons fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah, in the deadliest clashes since the two sides fought a full-scale war in 2006.

The border tension comes amid an Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip following a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar