A drone attack by the IDF has killed Ayman Ratma, one of Hamas’s key weapons suppliers in the Bekaa valley, the Israeli military has claimed.
Ratma helped direct weapons supplies from Lebanon for Hamas and Jamaa Islamiya – a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood – Israel claimed.
The IDF said they killed Ratma because of his “involvement in the promotion and execution of terrorist activities against Israel in the immediate future, as well as his involvement in advancing terrorist activity against Israeli civilians.”
A post on X from Lebanese news agency Al-Akhbar showed the alleged vehicle Ratma was travelling in going up in flames.
UN Secretary General highlights risk of regional conflict
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has warned of the risks of wider regional conflict in the Middle East, referring to escalating strikes between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Speaking to reporters in New York, Guterres said of Friday that “the risk for the conflict in the Middle East to widen is real – and must be avoided.”
Guterres commented that the war had the potential to trigger a catastrophe, and that Lebanon “could not afford to become another Gaza.”
There have been near daily exchanges of fire on the border between Israel and Lebanon, where strikes between the IDF and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah have left more than 400 people – and 80 civilians- dead.
On the Israeli side, 16 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed over the past eight months.
The tensions have escalated in recent weeks after Israel killed one of Hezbollah’s senior commanders- Taleb Abdullah- in south-eastern Lebanon.
Hezbollah retaliated by firing over two hundred rockets into northern Israel, one of its largest attacks since the war between Israel and Gaza began in October.
