According to a report by Reuters, Saleh al-Arouri, the Deputy Chief of Hamas, was killed on Tuesday night in a targeted Israeli drone attack in Dahiyeh, the southern suburbs of Beirut. Dahiyeh, a stronghold of the allied Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, indicated the conflict between Hamas and Israel could be expanding to engulf more of the region.
As per the report, Lebanon's national news agency said the drone struck a Hamas office. Two security sources said the strike had targeted a meeting between Hamas officials and Lebanon's Sunni Islamist Jama'a Islamiya faction and left a total of four Palestinians and three Lebanese dead.
This drone strike signifies the first targeted assassination of a Hamas official outside the Palestinian Territories since the Palestinian group's deadly assault on Israeli territory on Oct. 7.
Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement in the killing of Saleh al-Arouri, but a spokesman called it a "surgical strike against the Hamas leadership".
Hamas condemned the incident as a "terrorist act," while its ally Hezbollah said it was an assault on Lebanese sovereignty. Lebanon's PM accused Israel of attempting to "drag" it into a regional war.
Lebanese media report that Arouri, who served as a deputy political leader of Hamas, was killed in a drone attack in southern Beirut on Tuesday, along with two Hamas military commanders and four other individuals.
Israeli government adviser Mark Regev also did not confirm Israel's responsibility for the attack, stating on MSNBC "Whoever did it, it must be clear that this was not an attack on the Lebanese state, as quoted by BBC,
He added "It was not an attack even on Hezbollah, the terrorist organisation. "Whoever did this did a surgical strike against the Hamas leadership. Whoever did this has a gripe with Hamas. That is very clear."
(With Input from BBC News, Reuters)
Photo Courtesy: BBC
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