Hamas’ second in command was killed yesterday by an alleged Israeli cross-border drone strike deep into neighbouring Lebanon.
Saleh Arouri, the terror group’s deputy political leader and one of the founders of its military wing, died in the blast which targeted a Hamas office in the Lebanese capital of Beirut.
Lebanese state media claimed an Israeli drone attacked a meeting of militants in the Dahiya suburb of the city, a stronghold for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and exiled leaders of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Lebanese Security Services said six people were killed in the strike. Pictures apparently taken at the scene showed a car in flames and an apartment block destroyed by a blast.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said the blast was carried out by an Israeli drone. Israeli officials declined to comment.
If Israel is behind the attack it could mark a major escalation in the Middle East conflict.
Israel has been hunting the Hamas leadership in Gaza and abroad since the October 7 terror attacks, when 1,200 Israelis were killed by Hamas fighters.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had threatened to kill Arouri, who headed the Hamas’s presence in Israel’s West Bank, even before the Hamas-Israel war began in October.
In October, the Israel Defence Forces destroyed a home belonging to the 58-year-old in the West Bank.
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has vowed to retaliate against any Israeli targeting of Palestinian officials in Lebanon.
Hamas confirmed Arouri’s death but said that it would not “undermine the continued brave resistance” in Gaza, where the Palestinian militant group is fighting Israeli forces.
“It proves once more the utter failure of the enemy to achieve any of its aggressive goals in the Gaza Strip,” a senior Hamas official, Izzat al-Rishq, said.
The explosion came during more than two months of heavy exchanges of fire between Israeli troops and members of Hezbollah along Lebanon’s southern border.
Since the fighting began in October, the fighting has been concentrated a few miles from the border but on several occasions, Israel’s air force hit Hezbollah targets deeper in Lebanon.
Earlier in the day, Hezbollah said its fighters carried out several attacks along the Lebanon-Israel border targeting Israeli military posts.
