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(i24) Senior Palestinian official was reportedly targeted in explosion in Beirut
UPDATE:
(AP) — The TV station of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group says top Hamas official Saleh Arouri was killed Tuesday in an explosion in a southern Beirut suburb.
Arouri, one of the founders of Hamas’ military wing, had headed the group’s presence in the West Bank. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had threatened to kill him even before the Hamas-Israel war began on Oct. 7.
Israeli officials declined to comment.
NEW: Drone strike kills Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut, Lebanon.
Here come more protests from the left in America.
According to Hamas, al-Arouri was one of the main “architects” who planned the October 7th terror attack in Israel.
Al-Arouri was killed along with… pic.twitter.com/rTNSSPWinF
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 2, 2024
(JNS) An Israeli drone strike on a Hamas office in Beirut eliminated top terror chief Saleh al-Arouri on Tuesday night, Hamas’s Al-Aqsa Radio announced.
The explosion rocked the south Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, a Hezbollah stronghold. In addition to al-Arouri, at least three other Hamas operatives were also killed in the blast, Reuters reported.
BREAKING: VIDEO OF THE MOMENT ISRAEL USED DRONE STRIKE TO ATTACK HAMAS LEADERS IN BEIRUT pic.twitter.com/2J9LZXMAA0
— Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman) January 2, 2024
Al-Arouri, the commander of Hamas operations in Judea and Samaria, as well as the deputy politburo chief under Hamas chairman Ismail Haniyeh, had been based in Lebanon in recent years.
He was one of the top Hamas leaders on Israel’s target list following the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 massacre of at least 1,200 people in the northwestern Negev.
In a statement cited by Saudi Arabia’s Al Arabiya channel on Tuesday, Hamas described al-Arouri as the “architect” of the massacre.
Al-Arouri was informed of the impending invasion half an hour beforehand so he could alert Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, French outlet Le Figaro reported last week.
Local media said Nasrallah canceled a speech scheduled for Wednesday following the reports of al-Arouri’s death.
Israel is anticipating a response to the alleged assassination, according to Hebrew-language media, including possible long-range rocket fire.
During a Nov. 3 speech, Nasrallah threatened the Jewish state, telling Israelis that a preemptive strike against Lebanon would be “the most foolish mistake you make in your entire existence.”
The Hezbollah leader has repeatedly warned that any assassination inside Lebanese territory would be met with a “strong reaction.”
Israeli forces raided a home in Samaria belonging to al-Arouri on Oct. 21, detaining more than 20 people, including one of his brothers and nine of his nephews.
Al-Arouri is credited with orchestrating the relationship between Hamas and Iran, and also played a key role in re-establishing the Palestinian terrorist group’s ties with Damascus, which were severed in 2012 during the Syrian civil war.
He was recruited into Hamas in 1985 while studying Sharia law at Hebron University and had served 18 years in Israeli prisons. He was deported to Syria in 2010.
Over the summer, Al-Arouri threatened a “regional war” should Israel resume targeted killings in the wake of a series of deadly terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria.
“If we reach the point of an all-out confrontation, Israel will face an unprecedented defeat in its history, and we are confident of that,” he told Al Mayadeen, a pro-Hezbollah Lebanese paper.
On Tuesday evening, an explosion shook the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, a known stronghold of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
While the circumstances surrounding the explosion are currently under investigation, initial reports from the Lebanese state news agency suggest that four people were killed and several others wounded in in the blast.
According to a well informed source, a senior Palestinian personality was targeted in the attack in southern Beirut https://t.co/LHavoRHwlP
— Ali Hashem علي هاشم (@alihashem_tv) January 2, 2024
According to sources, a Palestinian official was purportedly the target of the explosion. The Da’aheh district, where the incident occurred, is integral to Hezbollah’s influence in the region, adding complexity to an already tense situation.
Authorities are diligently examining the incident as more details emerge, shedding light on this event in the center of Beirut.
