Assassinations bolster our resolve: Brother of martyred Fatah commander

The Israeli assassination of senior Fatah official Khalil al-Maqdah will only strengthen the resilience of Palestinian resistance fighters, according to his brother.

Speaking to the Lebanese channel Al-Mayadeen, Munir al-Maqdah, who leads the Lebanese branch of Fatah's armed wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, emphasized that the path of Palestinian resistance fighters leads either to victory or martyrdom.

"These assassinations fortify our strength, and this martyrdom is a badge of honor. The Resistance remains steadfast on the ground," he stated.

The Zionist regime assassinated Maqdah, a brigadier general in the armed wing of the Palestinian Fatah movement, with a missile strike on his car in Sidon, southern Lebanon.

The regime said Maqdah was facilitating the smuggling of weapons into the West Bank.

The attack marks the first such reported attack on a senior member of Fatah, the movement led by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, in more than 10 months of cross-border clashes between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah movement following the Gaza war.

Fatah said Maqdah had been killed "in a cowardly assassination carried out by ... Zionist (Israeli) warplanes on Sidon", describing him as "one of the leaders" of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in Lebanon, the movement's armed wing.

In a statement, it said Maqdah had "a central role" in "supporting the Palestinian people and its resistance" during the Gaza war and an "important role in supporting resistance cells" for years in the West Bank.

‘Israel wants to ignite full-scale war’

Separately, a senior Fatah official in the West Bank city of Ramallah told AFP that the Israeli regime aims to inflame regional conflict.

Tawfiq Tirawy said Maqdah’s assassination “is further proof that Israel wants to ignite a full-scale war in the region.”

Various Palestinian resistance factions have offered condolences on the martyrdom of the Fatah commander.

The Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades, the military wing of the Resistance Committees in Palestine, said they “take pride in the significant jihadist role of the martyr commander Khalil al-Maqdah in supporting our people and their resistance during the Al-Aqsa Flood battle and his significant role in supporting and supplying our fighters in the West Bank over many years."

The Lebanese wings of Hamas and the allied Palestinian Islamic Jihad have launched occasional attacks on northern Israel from Lebanon over the past months since October.

The Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah has near-daily clashes with Israeli forces against the backdrop of Israel’s campaign of genocide in Gaza.

Fatah, a rival of Hamas, has not announced taking part in any of those operations to date.

Israel’s attacks in Lebanon since October have killed over 600 people.

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