The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and other Israeli security agencies said Tuesday that the Israeli Air Force (IAF) had killed terrorist Hassan Ali Mahmoud Bdeir in Beirut, Lebanon before an anticipated attack on Israeli civilians.
Bdeir, allegedly a member of Hezbollah, also allegedly worked with Iran’s Quds Force, its terrorist arm abroad; and was allegedly helping Hamas plan a terror attack against Israelis, as the IDF closed in on Hamas leaders in Gaza.
In a joint announcement, the IDF, Israel Security Agency (ISA), and Mossad — Israel’s external spy agency — said:
Overnight, with the direction of the ISA, the IAF struck and eliminated the terrorist Hassan Ali Mahmoud Bdeir, a terrorist in Hezbollah’s Unit 3900 and the Iranian Quds Force, in the Dahieh area, a key stronghold of the Hezbollah terrorist organization.
Bdeir recently operated in cooperation with the Hamas terrorist organization, directed Hamas terrorists, and assisted them in planning and advancing a significant and imminent terror attack against Israeli civilians.
Given the immediacy of the threat, Bdeir was struck immediately in order to eliminate the threat posed by a terror attack intended to harm Israeli civilians.
Hezbollah’s terrorist activity constitutes a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon and poses a threat to Israel and its citizens.
The IDF, ISA, and Mossad will continue to operate to thwart any threat posed to Israeli civilians in Israeli territory and outside of it.
The airstrike was the second major Israeli attack on Lebanon in the past week, after Hezbollah resumed sporadic fire on Israeli civilian communities. A ceasefire that was negotiated in November now appears in danger of collapse.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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