Hezbollah targets Israeli soldiers after drone kills Hamas deputy in Beirut

Beirut: Hezbollah have targeted Israeli soldiers with missiles after Hamas’ deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri was killed in Lebanon’s capital by a drone strike that security sources attributed to Israel.

Hezbollah said it had targeted a group of Israeli soldiers near Marj with missiles, following Arouri’s death. Its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, previously warned Israel against carrying out any assassinations on Lebanese soil, vowing a “severe reaction”.

People search for survivors inside an apartment following a massive explosion in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, Lebanon.Credit: AP

The Israeli drone struck a Hamas office in Dahiyeh, a Beirut suburb and Hezbollah stronghold, on Wednesday morning (AEDT) and killed six people, Lebanon’s state news agency reported. Security sources and medics could not immediately identify the other people killed.

A witness in Dahiyeh saw firefighters and paramedics gathered around a multi-storey building with a gaping hole in what appeared to be the third floor. Limbs and other pieces of flesh could be seen on the roadside.

Saleh al-Arouri in 2018.Credit: AP

Arouri was one of the founders of Hamas’ military wing, al-Qassam Brigades, which carried out a deadly assault in Israeli territory on October 7. Last year, the US offered $US5 million ($7.3 million) for information on him.

Mark Regev, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told MSNBC that Israel had not taken responsibility for this attack, but “whoever did it, it must be clear that this was not an attack on the Lebanese state”.

“Whoever did this did a surgical strike against the Hamas leadership,” Regev said.

Hamas confirmed Arouri’s death via the affiliated al-Aqsa radio. Hamas politburo member Izzat al-Sharq said it was a “cowardly assassination”.

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said Arouri’s killing was a “terrorist act”, a violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty and an expansion of Israel’s hostility against Palestinians.

Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the explosion as a “new Israeli crime” and said it was an attempt to pull Lebanon into war. His office said he asked Lebanon’s foreign minister to file a complaint to the United Nations Security Council.

‘Revenge, revenge’

Israel had accused Arouri of ordering and supervising Hamas attacks in the Israeli-occupied West Bank for years.

“I am waiting for martyrdom and I think I have lived too long,” Arouri said in August 2023, alluding to Israeli threats to eliminate Hamas leaders whether in Gaza or abroad.

Nasser Kanaani, a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry of Iran, a major supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah, said Arouri’s killing would “undoubtedly ignite another surge in the veins of resistance and the motivation to fight against the Zionist occupiers, not only in Palestine but also in the region and among all freedom-seekers worldwide”.

Hundreds took to the streets in Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, to urge retaliation, shouting, “Revenge, revenge, Qassam”.

People gather outside a damaged building following a massive explosion in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, Lebanon.Credit: AP

In a written statement, Hezbollah said the attack would “not go without a response or punishment”, adding that the resistance had “its finger on the trigger”.

Hezbollah has been exchanging almost daily fire with Israel since Hamas carried out the October 7 attack, but the violence has mostly been limited to the border region between Lebanon and Israel.

Israeli airstrikes and shelling have killed more than 100 Hezbollah fighters and nearly two dozen civilians since then, including children, elderly people and several journalists. Two Australian brothers – Ali and Ibrahim Bazzi – and Ibrahim’s wife Shorouq Hammoud were killed late last month in the city of Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah claimed Ali Bazzi as one of their “mujahid” fighters.

US criticism

In a rare public rebuke that underscores deepening divisions between the US and Israel over the Palestinian territory’s fate, the Biden administration criticised two Israeli ministers over their call to resettle Palestinians outside the Gaza Strip.

Rhetoric by ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir “is inflammatory and irresponsible” and “should stop immediately”, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement on Tuesday.

“We have been clear, consistent, and unequivocal that Gaza is Palestinian land and will remain Palestinian land, with Hamas no longer in control of its future and with no terror groups able to threaten Israel,” Miller added.

The State Department has repeatedly rejected such calls for resettlement but has rarely mentioned ministers who made them by name.

Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported that Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, had called for a plan that would see Palestinians in Gaza emigrate to other countries. Smotrich, the finance minister, had called for Jewish settlements in Gaza, according to Haaretz.

Reuters, Bloomberg

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