Hamas's number two was killed on Tuesday in an attack attributed to Israel near Beirut, the Palestinian Islamist movement and Lebanese officials said, reviving fears of a widening conflict between Hamas and Israel in Gaza.
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According to two Lebanese security officials, Saleh al-Arouri, who was exiled in Lebanon for several years, was killed in an attack attributed to the Israeli army that targeted Hamas' office in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, stronghold of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah. had attacked.
According to Hamas leader Ismaïl Haniyeh, who denounced a “terrorist act” and assured that the movement will “never be defeated,” two leaders of Hamas' military branch, Ezzedine al-Qassam, Samir Fandi and Azzam al- Brigade, Aqraa, was also killed in the strike, as were four other movement leaders, Mahmoud Zaki Chahine, Mohammad Bashasha, Mohammad al-Raïs and Ahmad Hammoud
When questioned by AFP, the Israeli army said it “does not comment on information provided by foreign media.” Its spokesman Daniel Hagari reiterated in the evening, without directly mentioning the attack that killed Salah al-Arouri, that it was ready to face “any scenario”, while the death of the Hamas leader in Lebanon raised fears a regional conflagration.
On Tuesday evening, Lebanese Hezbollah, which supports Hamas, assured that the “assassination” of Saleh al Arouri “will not go unanswered or unpunished.” The Lebanese prime minister also denounced a “new Israeli crime aimed at plunging Lebanon into a new situation.” Phase of confrontation” with Israel.
The same story of the Palestinian Authority prime minister warning “of the risks and consequences that could arise” and Islamic Jihad, another armed group in Gaza, denouncing an “attack by the Zionist enemy.” […] to drag the entire region into war.
On October 7, Hamas carried out an attack of unprecedented proportions on Israeli soil, killing 1,140 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 250 people hostage, of which more than 100 were ultimately killed, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data were released in November during a ceasefire in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
In response, Israel vowed to “destroy” the Palestinian Islamist movement, which has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States, Israel and the European Union and has been bombed from the Gaza Strip, which has been under a total siege since October 9.
The war has cost 22,185 people their lives in Gaza, mostly women, youth and children, Hamas, which has ruled the area since 2007, said on Tuesday.
Since the start of the conflict, the Israeli-Lebanese border has been the scene of almost daily exchanges of fire between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, which supports Hamas, but there has never been an attack on the outskirts of the Lebanese capital since the start of the war. Never before has a senior Hamas leader like Saleh al Arouri been killed since the start of the conflict, when the Israeli army announced several times that it had succeeded in killing leaders of the movement in the Gaza Strip.
On Tuesday evening, numerous residents flocked to the area around the affected building in a Beirut suburb, whose facade appeared to be badly damaged on two floors. Through the completely gutted walls of one of these floors, several silhouettes of people could be seen, apparently trying to find evidence of the attack.
Many Palestinians also gathered in the streets of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank following the announcement of Saleh al-Arouri's death, where clashes with the army and Israeli settlers have increased since the start of the conflict between Hamas and Israel, according to images from AFPTV.
After spending almost twenty years in Israeli prisons, Saleh al-Arouri was released in 2010 on the condition that he go into exile. According to witnesses, his empty house was destroyed with explosives by the Israeli army in the occupied West Bank at the end of October.
The Israeli army also relentlessly continued its ground operations and bombing attacks on the ground in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday.
Despite urgent calls from the international community for a ceasefire, the army is preparing for “protracted fighting” that is likely to last “all year long,” its spokesman Daniel Hagari warned.
“The idea that we could stop soon is wrong. We will not be able to live in the Middle East without a clear victory,” added Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who visited soldiers on Tuesday – 173 of whom died in the Gaza Strip.
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Witnesses reported rocket fire on the city of Rafah (south) and bomb attacks around the Jabaliya refugee camp (north) on the night of Monday to Tuesday. Fighting was also reported in the al-Maghazi and Bureij areas, as well as in Khan Younes, a large city in the south of the territory that has become the epicenter of Israeli army operations.
The Palestinian Red Crescent also stated on the social network X (formerly Twitter) that its compound in Khan Younes had been the target of Israeli attacks. According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, they left four dead, including a small child.
At Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, Fathi al-Af stands on a stretcher next to one of his children, his hair covered in gray dust.
“We were at the Red Crescent compound, we are civilians evacuated from Gaza, we were fleeing death […]. They told us to go south because it was safe there, but they are liars,” he told AFPTV through tears.
The war has caused immense destruction and a humanitarian catastrophe in the Palestinian territory, where famine is looming and most hospitals are out of service.
Gaza's 2.4 million residents – 85% of whom have been displaced, according to the UN – are suffering from severe shortages of food, water, fuel and medicine.
Despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for the delivery of humanitarian aid, aid trucks are still arriving in small quantities.