Airstrike kills Hamas leader linked to October 7 attack
Protests were sparked after an airstrike killed Saleh al-Arouri, a senior Hamas leader. Israel has not claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Israeli military confirmed on Wednesday that Hamas hostage Sahar Baruch was killed in a failed rescue attempt last month, but said the details of his death were not yet clear.
The military said it told Baruch's family that an investigation has not yet determined whether Baruch was killed by Hamas or by friendly fire during the Israeli special forces rescue operation on December 8. Hamas claimed at the time that Baruch had been killed by Israeli forces and released footage that appeared to show his body.
Baruch's death was initially announced on December 9 in a joint statement from Kibbutz Be'eri and the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. Baruch, 25, was arrested along with about 240 other people during the Hamas-led attack on Israeli border communities on October 7. Baruch's brother Edan was among the 1,200 killed that day.
Edan and Sahar were reportedly at home when militants broke in and threw grenades into their safe room, kibbutz officials said. The house was set on fire and the brothers fled out the window. Sahar went back to get an inhaler for Edan, who was asthmatic and was captured. Edan was fatally shot, officials said.
Two Israeli soldiers were seriously injured during the rescue operation, the military said after the incident.
Saleh al-Arouri killed: Top Hamas leader dies in Israeli attack
Developments:
∎ Jailed Palestinian Marwan Barghouti has asked an Israeli court to remove him from the isolation wing of Ayalon Prison, alleging mistreatment by guards and poor conditions. Barghouti, seen by some as the Palestinian Nelson Mandela and future candidate to lead the Palestinian Authority, was arrested by Israel in 2002 and is serving five life sentences for plotting three terrorist attacks in which five Israelis were killed.
∎ The Israeli military said it carried out an airstrike on an Islamic Jihad weapons factory in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis.
∎ French President Emmanuel Macron warned Israel against considering a forced displacement of Gazans, saying it would run counter to global support for a long-term two-state solution.
Shipping giant Maersk suspends transit: Shipping in the Red Sea was halted after the attack, raising fears of inflation
Israel was on high alert for retaliation Wednesday following the killing of a senior Hamas military leader in Beirut, Lebanon, although Israeli officials have not claimed responsibility for the drone strike. “We are fully prepared for any scenario,” said Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari.
Israeli authorities have made no formal comment on the death of Hamas deputy Saleh al-Arouri on Tuesday. But since the Oct. 7 attack in which Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 Israelis and took more than 240 hostages, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to track down Hamas leaders wherever they are based.
David Barnea, head of Israel's Mossad security force, said on Wednesday he wanted to “let every Arab mother know that if her son took part in the massacre (October 7), he signed his own death warrant.”
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said on Wednesday his militants would not be deterred by Arouri's death, and the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah vowed “this crime will never go without response and punishment.” Late Tuesday and early Wednesday, several Rockets fired at Israel from Lebanon.
“A movement whose leaders and founders fall as martyrs for the dignity of our people and our nation will never be defeated,” Haniyeh, based in the Qatari capital Doha, said in a televised address translated by The Times of Israel.
A diplomatic solution to end the war will likely have to be “imposed from outside” as Hamas and Israel are not close to resolving their conflict, the European Union's chief diplomat said on Wednesday.
Josep Borrell told a diplomatic seminar in Lisbon that international engagement was needed as the two sides “will never be able to understand each other,” Lusa news agency and Euronews reported. Borrell gave no details on how global action might work or what the terms of such a peace would be. And he acknowledged that even EU member states were unable to unanimously agree on a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza
“If this tragedy does not end soon, I fear the entire Middle East will go up in flames,” he said.
An Israeli delegation was in Cairo on Wednesday to discuss Egypt's multi-stage proposal to end the war, Egyptian officials said. Under the plan, which neither Israel nor Hamas has fully rejected or approved, all of the more than 100 remaining hostages would eventually be released, as would thousands of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel. Israel would withdraw from Gaza and a government of Palestinian technocrats would rule the enclave and parts of the occupied West Bank pending formal elections.
More than 100 people die in explosion at the grave of an Iranian general killed by the US
Explosions at a ceremony in Iran honoring General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US airstrike in 2020, killed at least 100 people and injured scores more, Iranian media reported on Wednesday. The Tehran Times said two explosions in the southern Iranian city of Kerman injured more than 140 people as the country marks its fourth martyrdom since Soleimani's death. Two explosions were heard in quick succession near the general's grave, and rescue teams were sent to the scene to help the injured, the Times reported.
No organization has claimed responsibility for the attack, which came at a time of high tensions in the Middle East due to the Hamas-Israel war and repeated provocations from Iran-backed militias.
Deadly Explosions: More than 100 dead at event honoring Iranian general killed by US
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Wednesday doubled down on his call for “voluntary emigration” of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to other countries despite strong opposition from the United States, one of Israel's few global allies. The US State Department issued a statement On Tuesday, he condemned the “inflammatory and irresponsible” comments made by Smotrich and another far-right official, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
“There should be no mass expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said. Smotrich countered on social media that more than 70% of Israel's 9 million population support encouraging Arabs to leave Gaza.
“A small country like ours cannot afford a reality in which four minutes from our settlements there is a hotbed of hatred and terrorism, in which two million people come every morning with the desire for the destruction of the State of Israel and the desire “Wake up to slaughter” and rape and murder Jews wherever they are,” Smotrich wrote.
Contribution: The Associated Press