Lebanese source: Israeli attack killed Islamist leader

“A leader of Jamaa Islamiya’s al-Fajr forces, Ayman Ghotmeh, was killed in an Israeli attack in Khiara in the western Bekaa region,” 10 kilometers from the border with Syria, the source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The Fajr Forces, the armed wing of Jamaa Islamiya, were founded in 1982 to fight the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

The group has claimed responsibility for several attacks against Israel, including joint operations with Hamas in Lebanon. It numbers an estimated 500 members.

The Lebanese state news agency ANI reported that one person was killed in an attack on a car in Khiara. The victim was from the nearby village of Lala, but no further details were given.

The Israeli military said a plane had carried out a “precise strike in Lebanon’s Bekaa region to eliminate the terrorist” Ayman Ghotmeh, who had supplied weapons to Hamas and Jamaa Islamiya in Lebanon.

He was targeted because of his “involvement in promoting and carrying out terrorist activities against Israel,” the Israeli statement continued.

Jamaa Islamiya, whose fighters have killed seven people in Lebanon since October 7, did not initially report any fatalities.

On April 26, the group announced that two of its leaders had been killed in an Israeli attack in eastern Lebanon.

According to an AFP count, at least 480 people have been killed in the more than eight months of clashes on the Israeli-Lebanese border in Lebanon, most of them fighters, but also at least 93 civilians.

On the Israeli side, at least 15 soldiers and eleven civilians were killed, according to Israeli authorities.

Increased tensions on the Israeli-Lebanese border in recent days have raised concerns about an escalation of the regional conflict.