Palestinian commander killed in Lebanon as Israel, Hezbollah exchange fire 

A suspected Israeli drone attack on a car in southern Lebanon has killed a commander from a coalition of Palestinian armed groups as tensions remain high along the Israel-Lebanon border.

The attack targeted a car in the city of Sidon on Wednesday morning, killing Khalil al-Maqdah, a senior officer of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

A Hamas commander was also killed in the same region earlier this month.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army launched a series of overnight air raids targeting what it said were ammunition depots belonging to Lebanon’s Hezbollah group in the country’s Bekaa region, killing one person and wounding at least 20 others.

Hezbollah said it launched dozens of rockets towards northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights. One person was wounded and some residential buildings damaged.

Hezbollah said its rocket attacks were a retaliation for the Israeli attack on the Bekaa region overnight.

Reporting from Sidon, Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr said the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades issued a statement, calling al-Maqdah a commander and saying he played a key role in “supporting the Palestinian people and supporting the Palestinian resistance in the West Bank”.

“We have seen Israel target commanders and members of the Palestinian group Hamas in Lebanon and we have seen them target members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah,” she said, adding that such killings are “becoming a near daily occurrence”.

An AFP news agency’s correspondent at the site of the attack said a car was struck near the Palestinian camps of Ain al-Helweh and Mieh Mieh, adding rescuers had pulled a body from the charred vehicle.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency said al-Maqdah was killed “in a drone strike on his car”.

Mounir Makdah, who heads the Lebanese branch of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, told broadcaster Al Mayadeen that his brother Khalil had been killed, AFP reported.

Hezbollah and its allies have exchanged regular fire with Israel in support of its Palestinian ally, Hamas, since the October 7 attack on Israel, which launched an offensive on Gaza.

Since then, cross-border skirmishes have taken place almost daily between Israel and Hezbollah, but fears of a greater crisis soared when Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, and top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr were killed within hours of each other late last month.

Iran has promised retaliation, blaming Israel for Haniyeh’s assassination on its soil, but has held off so far, with the United States sending additional forces and warning a wider war could destroy prospects for a Gaza ceasefire.