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Rabat – Hezbollah, the Lebanese armed group and political party, has strongly condemned the Israeli Occupation Forces’ assassination of senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri and six others in a drone strike in southern Beirut.
The attack occurred last night in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, targeting a stronghold for Hezbollah and Palestinian groups, including Hamas.
Hezbollah officials have declared that the targeted killing of Al-Arouri will not go unanswered, promising retaliation against those responsible.
The Lebanese group said today that it carried out nine attacks targeting Israeli positions across the Lebanese border.
Al-Arouri was a key spokesperson for Hamas and played a significant role in the Palestinian group’s resistance to the ongoing Israeli aggression in Gaza. Born in Ramallah in 1966, he was one of the founders of Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades.
While Israel has not claimed responsibility for the attack, Hezbollah leaders view it as a direct assault on Lebanese sovereignty and a dangerous development in the Israeli Occupation Forces’ war on Gaza.
“We consider the crime of killing Saleh Al-Arouri and his companions in the heart of Beirut’s Dahiyeh a dangerous aggression against Lebanon and its people, security, sovereignty and resistance,” Hezbollah said in a statement.
Hezbollah has been engaged in daily cross-border fire with Israel since the start of the most recent cycle of violence on October 7, but the latest incident has raised concerns about a potential escalation into a full-scale war.
Yesterday’s attack marked the first time that Israel openly struck inside Beirut since the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel. As fighting spreads between Israel and Hezbollah, fears over the rise of regional conflict which could draw in Iranian-backed armed groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said it is on “high readiness for any scenario” following the assassination of the Hamas deputy leader.
