Hamas commander killed in Israeli drone strike in Lebanon’s Sidon

BEIRUT

A Hamas military commander was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Sidon city in southern Lebanon on Monday, the military said.

A military statement said that Mohammad Shahin was killed in a drone strike on a car in the coastal city in a joint operation by the army and the Shin Bet domestic security service.

The army claimed that Shahin was responsible for plotting attacks against Israeli targets from Lebanon.

Hamas’ armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, confirmed that Shahin was killed in an Israeli drone strike in Sidon.

A Hamas source earlier told Anadolu that Shahin was the target of the Israeli attack.

Lebanon’s state news agency NNA earlier reported that the body of one person was retrieved from a car struck by an Israeli drone on the coastal road in Sidon without identifying the victim.

The attack came as the Israeli army is set to withdraw its forces from southern Lebanon on Feb. 18 under a ceasefire agreement that ended months of mutual shelling between Tel Aviv and Hezbollah that escalated into a full-scale conflict in September 2024.