Original article republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Israel intensified assassinations of top leaders of the Axis of Resistance, ahead of the Israeli ground invasion into Lebanon

The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) assassinated five resistance leaders of groups affiliated with or supporting the Axis of Resistance in different parts of Lebanon within the last 48 hours. Three of the leaders were affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), while the fourth leader was affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas. The fifth was a top scholar and leader in Hezbollah.

The PFLP announced on Monday, September 30, that Israeli warplanes launched an airstrike near Kola intersection at the center of the Lebanese capital Beirut in the early hours of Monday morning killing three of its top leaders. PFLP identified the assassinated leaders as Imad Odeh, who was a PFLP military commander in Lebanon, along with Mohammad Abdel Aal and Abdul Rahman Abdel Aal, who were members of the movement’s political bureau in Lebanon. The Palestinian resistance group mourned its slain leaders in a statement vowing to “continue the path of struggle and resistance until the occupation will be swept away no matter how long it takes, and no matter how great the sacrifices.” Many have pointed out that the PFLP has not been involved in any of the strikes against Israel from Lebanese territory, making their assassination in this context even more concerning.

Meanwhile Hamas announced in a statement on Monday that Fateh Sharif Abu al-Amine, one of the movement’s leaders abroad, was killed along with his wife, son, and daughter, in an airstrike that targeted their house in the al-Buss refugee camp in South Lebanon. The movement mourned Abu al-Amin describing him as “active and vibrant” in addition to being “brave and courageous”. Hamas also pledged to remain steadfast “on the path of all Palestinian martyrs until the Israeli occupation is defeated and expelled from Palestine, and until Al-Quds and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails are liberated.”

On Sunday, September 29, Hezbollah announced that a member of its central council, Sheikh Nabil Qawouk was killed in an Israeli airstrike south of Beirut a day earlier. The Lebanese resistance group mourned Qawouk in a statement saying: “His Eminence Sheikh assumed many organizational responsibilities in the various units of Hezbollah, worthy of the trust he carried, a great scholar and fighter. Martyr Sheikh Nabil was always present in the arenas of Jihad, close to the fighters on the front lines, and spent his honorable life in the fields of Jihad and sacrifice.”

The Israeli army intensified its attacks to assassinate top resistance leaders in the region as it is prepared to launch an impending ground incursion in Lebanon which began in the early hours of Tuesday October 1.

Original article republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.