Israel has claimed the life of another Hamas militia leader Hassan Hakashah during an air strike in Syria.
Israel blames Hakashah launching rocket attacks into it’s territory from Syria.
“Since Hamas declared war on October 7, it has also been shooting rockets at us from Syria,” said Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy.
“Today we eliminated one of the masterminds of Hamas rocket fire from Syria, Hassan Hakashah, in Beit Jinn in Syria. The Jewish People are nobody’s punching bag anymore. We bite back.”
In its own statement, the Israel Defence Forces said: “We will not allow terrorism from Syrian territory and hold Syria responsible for all activity emanating from its territory.”
After the killing of Hamas leader Saleh al Arouri in Beirut last week, Mossad chief David Barnea repeated Israel’s promise to track down every Hamas leader involved in the Oct. 7 attack and its preparation and kill them.
On Monday, Israel said that it had killed a senior Hezbollah official in southern Lebanon, Wissam al-Tawil. That followed a strike last week, thought to be carried out by an Israeli drone, that killed a senior Hamas official
The killing of Hakasha is the third recent assassination carried out by Israeli jets in Syria.
On Christmas Day, Israeli jets killed Iran’s top commander in Syria, Gen. Sayyed Razi Mousavi, who was in charge of coordinating Iran’s military alliance with Syria. Earlier in December, an Israeli airstrike on the airport in Damascus killed 11 Iranian Revolutionary Guard officials, according to regional press reports.
Iran denied the incident occurred.
