ISRAEL ASSASSINATES TOP HAMAS LEADER SALEH AL-AROURI IN BEIRUT

Tue 02 January 2024:

Israel killed senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri on Tuesday, in a targeted attack in the Lebanese capital Beirut, officials from the Palestinian movement have said.

Footage shared on social media showed the burnt-out wreckage of several vehicles in southern Beirut as crowds gathered nearby after the attack.

Dahiyeh, where the explosion took place, is a largely residential neighbourhood but also serves as a stronghold for the Lebanese armed movement Hezbollah and also houses Hamas offices.

There was no confirmation of who else may have been killed in the attack, but Hamas said two other Qassam Brigade commanders were also killed.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the explosion, calling it a “new Israeli crime”.

Who was Saleh al-Arouri?

Al-Arouri was the deputy chief of Hamas’s political bureau and one of the founders of the Palestinian group’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades. He was born in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank in 1966.

He had long been living in exile in Lebanon after spending 15 years in Israeli jail. In recent weeks, he acted as a spokesperson for Hamas and its strategy in the war in Gaza.

Last month, he told Al Jazeera that Hamas would not discuss a prisoner exchange deal before ending the Israeli offensive on Gaza.

”The resistance is ready for all the military scenarios,” he said. “There is no fear or worry for the resistance. It will win.”

In October, Israeli forces demolished his home near Ramallah.

The US government designated him as a “global terrorist” in 2015 and put out a $5m reward for information on him.

Lebanese PM slams Beirut explosion as ‘new Israeli crime’

Najib Mikati said the killing of al-Arouri “aims to pull Lebanon into a new phase of confrontations in light of the ongoing daily attacks on the south of the country”.

Mikati also warned against “the Israeli political upper echelon resorting to exporting its failures in Gaza to the southern border to impose new facts on the ground and change the rules of engagement”.

UN: Situation ‘extremely worrying’ after Hamas leader’s death

UN secretary-general spokesperson Florencia Soto Nino has been asked directly by Al Jazeera’s diplomatic correspondent about whether the attack on al-Arouri was a breach of the UN Charter if it was carried out by Israel and whether the Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the attack.

She chose to sidestep the question, saying she did not “want to speculate”.

However, she added that the UN chief was calling for maximum restraint.

“I think our message to everyone … is the same: Because of the escalating tensions and the fragility of the situation in the region, we are calling for maximum restraints for all parties. We don’t want any rash actions that could trigger further violence,” Soto Nino said.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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