Hamas says its leader in Lebanon killed in air strike

Palestinian militant group Hamas said its leader in Lebanon was killed Monday in a strike on the country's south, as official media reported a strike on a Palestinian refugee camp.

"Fatah Sharif Abu al-Amine, the leader of Hamas... in Lebanon and member of the movement's leadership abroad" was killed in an air strike on his "home in the Al-Bass camp in south Lebanon", a Hamas statement said.

It said he was killed with his wife, son and daughter in a "terrorist and criminal assassination".

The official National News Agency reported an air strike on Al-Bass near the city of Tyre, saying it was the "first time" the camp had been targeted.

The statement came hours after the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a secular left-wing group, said three of its members were killed in a strike on Beirut's Cola district early Monday.

Sharif was a United Nations employee placed on administrative leave, said the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees. He was not open about his affiliation with the Palestinian militant group and its armed wing.

UNRWA spokesman Jonathan Fowler said Sharif "was an UNRWA employee who was put on administrative leave without pay in March and that he "was undergoing an investigation following allegations" the agency received "about his political activities."

Sharif was head of UNRWA's teachers association.

A Hamas statement praised Sharif for his "educational and jihadist work" and called him "a successful teacher and an outstanding principal" for generations of Palestinian refugees.

The UNRWA teachers’ union and other Palestinian groups had periodically staged protests in front of the U.N. agency's office in Beirut since Sharif’s suspension, alleging it targeted him for his political stances.

Earlier this month, the union staged a sit-in during a visit to Lebanon by UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini, saying it awaited "positive and fair outcomes" in the case of his suspension.

Israel has repeatedly targeted Hamas officials in Lebanon since the Gaza war erupted almost a year ago.

A strike in January killed Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri and six other militants in Hezbollah's south Beirut stronghold.

In August, an Israeli strike on a vehicle in the south Lebanon city of Sidon killed Hamas commander Samer al-Hajj.

Lebanon's official Palestinian refugee camps were created for Palestinians who were driven out or fled during the 1948 war at the time of Israel's creation.

By longstanding convention, the Lebanese army stays out of the camps and leaves the Palestinian factions to handle security.