Although its enemies threatened to exact “punishment” for the assassination of a Hamas leader in Beirut, Israel has maintained that the incident was not an attack on Lebanon.
Israel has described what happened as a “surgical strike against the Hamas leadership” but has not confirmed or denied that it killed Saleh al-Arouri.
It was referred to as a “terrorist act” by Hamas and an attack on Lebanese sovereignty by Hezbollah, its ally.
According to Lebanon’s PM, Israel is attempting to “drag” the country into a regional conflict.
According to Lebanese media, Arouri, the deputy political leader of Hamas, and two other Hamas military commanders and four other members were among the six people who died in a drone strike in southern Beirut on Tuesday.
He was a prominent member of Hamas’s armed wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, and a close ally of the organization’s leader, Ismail Haniyeh. Serving as a liaison between his organization and Hezbollah, he had been in Lebanon.
Since the beginning of Israel’s conflict with Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah and Israeli forces have engaged in almost daily gunfire, but the violence has so far only occurred in the vicinity of the Israel-Lebanon border.
Hezbollah is the biggest political and military force in Lebanon and has ministers in the government of the nation. Like Hamas, it is regarded as a terrorist organization by Israel, the UK, and other countries.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) declared that its soldiers were “highly prepared for any scenario” but declined to comment on the killing of Saleh al-Arouri.
Although he did not explicitly state that Israel was the perpetrator of the attack, Israeli government advisor Mark Regev told MSNBC that “whoever did it, it must be clear that this was not an attack on the Lebanese state.”
Since Israel and Hamas went to war following the group’s attack on October 7, Arouri, 57, is the most senior Hamas figure to be killed.
That day, waves of Hamas gunmen broke into Israel and targeted border communities, killing roughly 1,200 people—mostly civilians—and capturing about 240 more as hostages and sending them to Gaza.
In retaliation, Israel began a military campaign with the stated goal of eliminating Hamas.
According to Gaza’s health ministry, which is run by Hamas, over 22,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have perished as a result of Israeli strikes since then.
According to Lebanon’s official news agency, Arouri was killed by an Israeli drone strike on a Hamas office in the Dahiyeh suburb of southern Beirut.
A Reuters news agency witness reported seeing paramedics and firefighters gathered around a high-rise building with a large hole in what looked to be the third floor.
Social media footage from the scene revealed numerous damaged buildings and a burning car in a busy residential area.
Dahiyeh is regarded as a Hezbollah stronghold.
A “cowardly… terrorist act, a violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty, and an expansion of its circle of aggression,” according to Mr. Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’s political bureau.
“A serious assault on Lebanon, its people, its security, sovereignty, and resistance, and the highly symbolic and significant political and security messages it contains,” declared Hezbollah in response to Arouri’s passing.
It stated that the assault was “a dangerous development in the course of the war… and we in Hezbollah affirm that this crime will never pass without response and punishment” .
Significantly endorsing both factions, Iran declared that Arouri’s murder would “undoubtedly ignite another surge in the veins of resistance”.
Tuesday night’s Israeli security cabinet meeting, which was supposed to address the post-war strategy for Gaza, was canceled.
In order to “impress on them that they should not respond themselves,” the Lebanese government is in talks with Hezbollah, according to Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib, who spoke with BBC Radio 4 on the subject. However, he added, “We don’t tell them, we dialogue with them in this regard.”
“We are very concerned, [the] Lebanese don’t want to be dragged, even Hezbollah does not want to be dragged into a regional war,” he continued, adding that it will become evident “whether they respond or not” over the course of the next day.
And he asked the international community to “pressure Israel to stop also all its violence and all of its actions, not only on Lebanon, not only on Beirut, but also in Gaza” .
Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, has previously vowed to kill Hamas’s leaders wherever they may be.
According to Israeli media reports, Arouri was also in charge of attacks in the West Bank and was regarded as the de facto leader of Hamas’s military wing.
He had served time in Israeli jails for other attacks and is thought to have played a role in the 2014 kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in the occupied West Bank, according to reports.
According to the Times of Israel, he was also among the Hamas officials with the strongest ties to Hezbollah and Iran.
