Israeli drone strike kills senior Hamas leader in Beirut

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – An Israeli drone strike on a Hamas office in southern Beirut on Tuesday killed Saleh al-Arouri, deputy head of the group’s politburo and a founding commander of its military wing, a Hamas spokesperson told Rudaw. 

Nabo Salih, the Hamas spokesperson for foreign media, said that the Israeli strike killed Arouri and three other people in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a stronghold of Hamas ally Hezbollah. His death was also confirmed by Lebanese state media.  

“The hostile raid targeted the Hamas office, where a meeting of the Palestinian factions was being held, and it led to the martyrdom of a Hamas official in the West Bank, Saleh al-Arouri, and 3 other martyrs, and the wounding of 11 people,” Lebanon’s state National News Agency said. 

The assassination came a day before the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Major General Qasem Soleimani, head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, alongside Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the top commander of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi) in a US drone strike in Baghdad International Airport.

In a statement, Hamas politburo member Izzat al-Rishq said that the assassination of Arouri “will not succeed in breaking the will” of the movement in Gaza against Israeli forces. 

“It proves once again the utter failure of the enemy to achieve any of its aggressive goals in the Gaza Strip,” he said. 

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the Israeli killing of Arouri, saying it “aims to draw Lebanon into a new phase of confrontations” with Israel. It comes as Israel and Hezbollah exchange daily cross-border attacks in southern Lebanon.

Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hezbollah, has previously vowed retaliation for any Israeli attack on Palestinian officials and leaders in Lebanon.