This was announced by the Islamist Palestinian organization Hamas and two Lebanese security representatives. Saleh al-Aruri was killed along with his bodyguards in the attack on the Hamas office on the southern outskirts of Beirut, a senior security official said. The area is considered a stronghold of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah militia.
It is the first Israeli attack on a target in the Lebanese capital since the war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7. So far, clashes between the Israeli army and the Lebanese Hezbollah militia – an ally of the Palestinian Hamas – have been limited to the border areas in southern Lebanon.
A total of six deaths
Hamas confirmed the “assassination” of al-Arouri in its official media. “Hamas’ political bureau vice-president Sheikh Saleh al-Aruri was martyred in a Zionist attack in Beirut,” Hamas announced on its official television channel, al-Aqsa TV, and its other media outlets.
According to Lebanon’s state news agency, a total of six people were killed in the Israeli attack. “The number of martyrs has increased to six,” NNA reported. Accordingly, a meeting of Palestinian groups was taking place in the Hamas office at the time of the attack. The agency initially reported four deaths.
An AFP photographer saw two floors of a building destroyed and damaged vehicles. Ambulances rushed to the scene of the attack.
Almost 20 years in prison
Aruri, whom Israel blames for planning numerous attacks, was elected deputy to Hamas Politburo chief Ismail Haniya in 2017. This officially made him the Islamist organization’s number two. After being imprisoned in Israeli prisons for almost 20 years, he was released in 2010 on the condition that he go into exile. Since then he has lived in Lebanon.
Israel and Hamas have been at war for almost three months. The trigger was a major attack on Israel by Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organization by the USA and the EU, in which around 1,140 people were killed on October 7th and around 250 others were kidnapped as hostages in the Gaza Strip.
In response to the major Hamas attack, Israel has been bombing targets in the Gaza Strip since October 9th and also began a ground offensive – with the aim of destroying the radical Islamic organization. At least 22,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since then, according to recent figures from the Hamas Ministry of Health, which cannot be independently verified. The Israeli military, for its part, reports 173 soldiers killed.
