A HAMAS boss who led its terrorists in Lebanon has been killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin died alongside his wife, son, and daughter in a blast that targeted their house in a Palestinian refugee camp in the city of Tyre.
TwitterHamas chief Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin has been killed in Lebanon[/caption]
AFPSmoke billows after an Israeli strike on a village near the southern Lebanese city of Tyre[/caption]
It comes Israel escalates hostilities against Iran’s allies in the Middle East – amid fears the region could be on the brink of all-out war.
Israeli tanks have been seen massed on its northern border with Lebanon as military chiefs appear to gear up for a land invasion against Hezbollah.
In a separate strike in the early hours of Monday, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said three of its leaders were killed in Beirut’s Kola district.
It is the first attack within the city limits.
The death toll across Lebanon has now topped 1,000 as Israel ramps up strikes against Hezbollah.
Hassan Nasrallah – Hezbollah’s terror boss – was killed on Friday when Israel hammered a suburb of Beirut with dozens of airstrikes targeting the group’s HQ.
Israeli strikes ripped through the 64-year-old’s underground bunker – eliminating the firebrand Secretary-General after a 32-year reign.
Wreckage from Friday’s strike is still smouldering more than two days on.
Hezbollah has also confirmed that Nabil Kaouk, the deputy head of its Central Council, was killed Saturday.
He is the seventh senior Hezbollah leader killed in Israeli strikes in little over a week.
They include the group’s founding members who had evaded death or detention for decades.
Ali Karaki, another senior commander, died in the strike that killed Nasrallah.
Israel says at least 20 other Hezbollah militants were killed, including one in charge of Nasrallah’s security detail.
In response to the dramatic escalation in Israeli strikes on Lebanon, Hezbollah significantly increased its rocket attacks in the past week.
According to the Israeli military, it has spiralled from several dozen to several hundred daily.
The attacks injured several people and caused damage, but most of the rockets and drones were intercepted by Israel’s air defence systems or fell in open areas.
Experts have warned Israeli forces could march across the border imminently as tensions spiral.
Analysts said terror group Hezbollah are ready for a “fight to the death” against Israel should they invade – with Iran ready to pounce and send the region into chaos.
Hezbollah has been decimated from the ground up by Israel – with their top brass being eliminated one-by-one.
Intelligence expert Anthony Glees told The Sun: “I now expect within hours that the Israeli army is going to march into southern Lebanon in the first instance, and we will see yet a further escalation.
“If Hezbollah won’t hand over their weapons and they won’t then the Israeli Defense Force is going to go in there and take the weapons off them.”
But the historian warned that despite the IDF outnumbering, outgunning and potentially outsmarting Hezbollah a complete offensive will be a tricky task to pull off.
Despite being severely weakened by the rocket strikes Hezbollah are still a scary prospect after decades of training and Iranian funding.
Anthony said: “I don’t think the Israeli Defense force will go into southern Lebanon like a hot knife through butter.
“The Hezbollah fighters are fighters, and the origins of Hezbollah amongst displaced Palestinians mean that these people will fight to the death and kill as many Israelis as they possibly can.
“So I don’t think it will be a simple affair, and of course they will never surrender.”