Israel announces killing of Islamic Jihad official at Syrian-Lebanese border

The Israeli military announced that it had killed a Palestinian Islamic Jihad official in an airstrike near the Syria-Lebanon border. 

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the strike resulted in the deaths of the official and three others.

In a statement, the Israeli military reported that the Air Force 'conducted an attack on the Syrian-Lebanese border area and killed a person named Firas Qassem,' describing him as the 'central operative' in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad's operations division, a faction supported by Tehran and allied with Hamas and Hezbollah.

It was noted that Qassem was ''responsible for developing operational plans for Islamic Jihad in Syria and Lebanon and played a central role in recruiting Palestinian operatives for Hezbollah, with the aim of carrying out 'terrorist operations' from Lebanon towards Israel.''

Later, the al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad, mourned three of its fighters, stating that they were 'members of the al-Quds Brigades in the Syrian arena.' 

Hezbollah also mourned one of its fighters from Baalbek in eastern Lebanon.