ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - An airstrike in the early hours of Friday morning in Lebanon's port city of Sidon killed a Hamas commander, according to an Israeli military statement.

The statement reported that the target of the strike was Hassan Farhat, "commander of Hamas's western arena in Lebanon," alleging that the deceased was responsible for a string of attacks on Israel following the escalation of hostilities after Hamas's unprecedented attack on October 7 2023.

An unnamed Palestinian official reported that Farhat's adult son and daughter were also killed in the bombing, which occurred in a residential district of Sidon, a city on Lebanon's Mediterranean coast. 

The incident marks yet another episode in Israel's military campaign in Lebanon, with a suburb of Beirut being targeted earlier in the week. 

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam condemned the strike as a "flagrant attack on Lebanese sovereignty" and a blatant breach of the ceasefire signed between the two countries in November last year. 

He continued to push for international solidarity in bringing "maximum pressure on Israel to force it to halt these continual attacks."

After nearly a year of intermittent cross-border exchanges between Hezbollah, a militant group primarily located in southern Lebanon, and Israel, and following a little over two months of intensified conflict between the two, a ceasefire deal brokered by the United States and France brought the conflict to a halt in late November.

However, the ceasefire has seen numerous violations, with sporadic gunfights and airstrikes occurring in the country’s south.

More than 3,000 people were killed in over a year of fighting between Hezbollah and Israeli forces.