5 Palestinian fighters killed in Lebanon blasts blame Israel

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By Webdesk


Israeli source denies involvement in the attack on a PFLP-GC base near the Syrian border.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command has blamed Israel for the deaths of five of its members in a blast in eastern Lebanon, near the Syrian border.

Anwar Raja, a PFLP-GC official, said an Israeli strike hit positions in the Lebanese eastern city of Qusaya on Wednesday. He said 10 were injured, two of them in critical condition.

However, an Israeli source told Reuters that Israel was not involved in the attack. There is no official comment from Israel, the Lebanese military or the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group.

There were conflicting reports from Lebanese and Palestinian sources that the blast was the result of an old rocket going off in a weapons depot or mines exploding as they were being moved.

Another PFLP-GC official, Lebanon-based Abu Wael Issam, said his group will retaliate “at the appropriate time”. He added that the attack would not stop his group from “escalating the fight against the Israeli enemy”.

The PFLP-GC has positions along the border between Lebanon and Syria and a military presence in both countries. The group had carried out attacks on Israel in the past.

The PFLP-GC is a left-wing group that split from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in 1968 and supported the Syrian government. Its forces have fought alongside government forces in the war in Syria.

Based in both Syria and Lebanon, the group has a presence in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus, as well as Burj al-Barajneh in Beirut.

The group became known for major attacks on Israel, including the hijacking of an El Al jetliner in 1968 and the machine gunning of another plane at Zurich Airport in 1969. In 1970, it planted a bomb on a Swissair plane that exploded on a flight from Zurich to Tel Aviv, killing all 47 passengers on board.

During the 1985 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the PFLP-GC captured three Israeli soldiers and negotiated their release in exchange for more than 1,100 mostly Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian prisoners.



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