Israeli strike kills top Hamas leader in Beirut, triggers protests

Gaza, January 2

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Israel killed Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri in a drone strike in Lebanon’s capital Beirut on Tuesday, Lebanese and Palestinian security sources said, as its forces kept pummelling parts of Gaza, vowing further “high-intensity” warfare against the Islamist militant group in the enclave.

Hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets of Ramallah in the West Bank to condemn Arouri’s killing, chanting, “Revenge, revenge, Qassam!”

Hamas’ Al Aqsa Radio and Lebanon’s pro-Iranian Mayadeen TV confirmed word from security sources that Arouri, a member of the Palestinian Islamist movement’s politburo based abroad and a co-founder of Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades, had been killed when a drone struck a Hamas office in south Beirut. Lebanon’s caretaker PM Najib Mikati termed it a “new Israeli crime” and said it was an attempt to pull Lebanon into war.

Mark Regev, an adviser to the Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, said Israel “has not taken responsibility for this attack”. Israel had accused Arouri of supervising Hamas attacks in the Israel-occupied West Bank in support of militants. Alluding to Israeli threats to eliminate Hamas leaders whether in Gaza or abroad, Arouri had in August last year said, “I am waiting for martyrdom and I think I have lived too long.”

The war was triggered by a shock cross-border Hamas assault on Israeli towns on October 7 that Israel says killed 1,200 people with some 240 taken hostage.

The Gaza health ministry said 207 people had been killed in the past 24 hours, bringing the total deaths to 22,185 in nearly three months of war in Gaza.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said operations around Khan Younis, southern Gaza’s main city, concentrated on areas above the tunnel network where Hamas leaders were believed to be hiding. — Reuters

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