Israel escalates the assassination of Hamas leaders, expands settlements in the West Bank, and postpones the Lebanon negotiations

Israel has escalated assassination operations against leaders and activists of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement.

On the night of Thursday-Friday, the Israeli army assassinated Muhammad al-Yazuri, known as “Abu al-Haytham,” the commander of the “Khan Yunis Brigade” in the “Al-Qassam Brigades,” after a drone targeted him while he was walking in the Al-Mawasi area, and Hudhayfah Abu Muammar, one of the engineers in the “Al-Qassam Brigades,” was killed with him.

In addition, as part of the boasting and election propaganda of the far-right minister, Bezalel Smotrich, the Union of Settlement Farms that works under his supervision revealed, for the first time in a decade, a map revealing that these settlement farms now extend over a vast area of ​​more than 1.1 million dunams in the West Bank.

An American official said on Friday that the next round of negotiations between Israel and Lebanon scheduled for Rome has been postponed to October.

The official, who requested anonymity, said that although the talks will not be held as scheduled in September, the Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors will meet at the State Department in Washington next week “to discuss current developments and continue implementing” the framework agreement reached in June.

Today, Friday, the Lebanese security services arrested three people in the Bekaa region, after they caught them red-handed while using and possessing drugs.

An informed security source told Asharq Al-Awsat that an Army Intelligence patrol raided a drug abuse den in the town of Al-Ain in the Bekaa Valley, and arrested the Syrian Suleiman Hilal Al-Assad, the cousin of former Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, along with two Lebanese, one of whom is the son of Noah Zuaiter, who is detained by the Lebanese judiciary in cases related to drug trafficking.

The source explained that the patrol transferred the detainees to the Intelligence Directorate in the Ministry of Defense, where preliminary investigations began with them under the supervision of the competent judiciary.

The source denied reports that Suleiman al-Assad was wanted by the Syrian authorities. He also denied that he was an officer with the rank of brigadier general in the Syrian army, stressing that he is a civilian and young, provided that investigations reveal the full circumstances of the case.