Fatah Official Killed In Strike In Lebanon Had IRGC Links-Reports

An Israeli airstrike on a car in the southern Lebanon city of Sidon has killed Khalil Al-Maqdah, a senior official in Fatah, the rival political movement to Hamas that controls the West Bank under the umbrella of the Palestinian Authority. Unconfirmed reports in Israeli media claim that al-Maqdah was linked to the foreign ops. branch of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the Quds Force.

• The strike marks the first on an official from Fatah since the 7 October attacks by Hamas that sparked the current conflict in Gaza.
• Emanuel Fabian at Times of Israel posts on X: "Khalil is the brother of senior Fatah official Munir Makdah, who has been accused by Israel for years of working with Hezbollah and the IRGC to advance attacks on Israel. In a joint statement, the IDF and Shin Bet say that the Makdah brothers have been working out of Lebanon with the IRGC to transfer money and weapons to terror cells in the West Bank."
• The killing of a senior Fatah official could risk an escalation in tensions in the West Bank. With Israeli forces already engaged in a war in Gaza, engaged in a wider tit-for-tat series of strikes with Hezbollah along the Lebanese border, and waiting for an Iranian response to the killing of Hamas' Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July, having to focus on additional potential threats could stretch Israeli security resources even further.