2024-01-02 19:10:46
Hamas political bureau number two, Saleh Al-Arouri (left), during a press conference in Cairo, Egypt, in October 2017. AMR ABDALLAH DALSH / REUTERS
Saleh Al-Arouri, number two in the Hamas political bureau, was killed on Tuesday January 2 by a strike attributed to the Israeli army near Beirut, announced the Palestinian terrorist movement and two officials from the Lebanese security services.
According to one of them, the strike which caused the death of the Hamas leader targeted the movement’s office in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital. “A meeting of Palestinian groups was being held” in the building, specifies the Lebanese press agency ANI.
In the evening, Emmanuel Macron called on Israel to avoid any escalation in Lebanon. The president, who spoke by telephone with Israeli Minister Benny Gantz, a member of the war cabinet, stressed that“it was essential to avoid any escalatory attitude, particularly in Lebanon, and that France will continue to pass these messages to all the actors involved directly or indirectly in the area”announced the Elysée.
Saleh Al-Arouri was considered one of the founders of Hamas’ military wing. The Palestinian movement confirmed that it had been “murdered” in an Israeli strike in Beirut. “Martyrdom of the vice-president of the Hamas political bureau, Sheikh Saleh Al-Arouri, in a Zionist strike in Beirut”, declares Hamas in an announcement broadcast by its official channel, Al-Aqsa TV, and its other media. He adds that “two leaders of the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades”its military branch, Samir Fandi and Azzam Al-Aqraa, were also killed, as were four other executives of the movement, Mahmoud Zaki Chahine, Mohammad Bashasha, Mohammad Al-Raïs and Ahmad Hammoud.
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Contacted by Reuters, the Israeli army said it would not respond to questions regarding information from the foreign press. An adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with American television channel MSNBC that Israel had not claimed responsibility for the attack. Regardless of who is responsible, Mark Regev added, “one thing is clear: this is not an attack against the Lebanese state” but of a “surgical strike” against the leadership of Hamas.
A “crime” which “will not go unpunished”, warns Hezbollah
According to a Reuters journalist, the strike targeted a building located in a densely populated district of Daniyeh, near a highway. An Agence France-Presse photographer on site saw two floors of the building blown away and cars damaged in the area, to which ambulances were streaming.
The area is considered a stronghold of pro-Iranian Hezbollah which has supported Hamas since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, by firing rockets almost daily into northern Israel, which resulted in unprecedented clashes since 2006. The exchanges of fire were until now limited to the border area and the Israeli army had not targeted the Lebanese capital.
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“A movement whose leaders and founders fall as martyrs for the dignity of our people and our nation will never be defeateddeclared Ismaël Haniyeh, head of the Hamas political bureau, in a televised address. It is the story of the resistance and the movement which, after the assassination of its leaders, becomes even stronger and more determined. »
“The crime of the assassination of Saleh Al-Arouri in the heart of the southern suburbs of Beirut is a serious aggression against Lebanon (…) and a serious development in the war between the enemy and the axis of resistance”, warned Hezbollah in a press release. The man named “axis of resistance” brings together all pro-Iranian movements in the region. “This crime will not go unanswered or unpunished”added the Lebanese party whose secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah, is due to deliver a highly anticipated speech on Wednesday evening.
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The Israeli army said on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday that it was prepared “for any scenario”. “The most important thing to say tonight is that we are focused and remain focused on the fight against Hamas”said army spokesperson Daniel Hagari.
Demonstration in the West Bank
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh “condemned the assassination” and warned “against the risks and consequences which could result therefrom”. Same thing with Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian armed group, which spoke of a “attempt of the Zionist enemy (…) to drag the entire region into war”.
Lebanese interim Prime Minister Najib Mikati, for his part, spoke of a “new Israeli crime” committed to push Lebanon to take part in the war. His services announced that they had asked the Minister of Foreign Affairs to transmit a complaint to the United Nations Security Council to denounce a violation of Lebanese sovereignty.
For the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, quoted by the official press, the elimination of Saleh Al-Arouri will increase the motivation of“axis of resistance” who fights against Israel. In the occupied West Bank, hundreds of people gathered in Ramallah to demand revenge.
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Accused by Israel of being the mastermind of numerous attacks, Saleh Al-Arouri was elected in 2017 to the post of deputy to Ismaïl Haniyeh, head of the Hamas political bureau, thus becoming the movement’s number two. After spending nearly twenty years in Israeli prisons, he was released in 2010 on the condition that he go into exile. He has since lived in Lebanon, like many other leaders of the movement. His unoccupied West Bank home was blown up by the Israeli army in late October 2023, according to witnesses.
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