Israel-Hamas: number two of the terrorist movement killed in an Israeli strike on the suburbs of Beirut

The Israeli army continues its offensive on Tuesday in the besieged Gaza Strip where bombings shook the Palestinian territory overnight, almost three months after the start of the war against Hamas which is expected to last throughout the year. Triggered by an attack on an unprecedented scale by the terrorist movement on Israeli soil on October 7, the conflict cost the lives of nearly 22,000 people, mostly women, adolescents and children, and left more than 57,000 injured, according to Hamas. .

Late in the afternoon, Hamas television confirmed the death of the number two of the terrorist movement in an Israeli strike in the suburbs of Beirut in Lebanon.

Hamas number 2 killed in strike, Hezbollah says

Palestinian Hamas number two, Saleh al-Arouri, was killed in an Israeli strike on the suburbs of Beirut on Tuesday evening, the Palestinian movement and two Lebanese security officials announced. This is the first time since the start of the war in Gaza that Israel has struck the Lebanese capital. Clashes between the Israeli army and Lebanese Hezbollah, an ally of Palestinian Hamas, were until now limited to border areas in southern Lebanon.

Saleh al-Arouri was killed along with his bodyguards in an Israeli strike that targeted the Hamas office in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, a stronghold of pro-Iranian Hezbollah, a Lebanese security official said. An AFP photographer on site saw two floors of the building blown away and cars damaged in the area, to which ambulances were rushing. Hamas confirmed Tuesday that its number two had been “assassinated” in an Israeli strike in Beirut, in an announcement relayed by the movement’s media.

Lebanon: state media announces four dead in Israeli strike on Hamas office near Beirut

Four people were killed Tuesday in an Israeli drone strike targeting a Palestinian Hamas office in the suburbs of Beirut, the official Lebanese agency announced. “Four people were martyred and several others were injured when the Hamas office was targeted” in the southern suburbs of Beirut, stronghold of the Lebanese movement Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, said the Lebanese National News Agency (NNA).

Hamas ‘open’ to establishing a single government for the West Bank and Gaza

Hamas said it was “open” to the establishment of a single Palestinian government for the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, its leader Ismaïl Haniyeh said on Tuesday. “We have received many initiatives regarding the internal (Palestinian) situation and we are open to the idea of ​​a national government for the West Bank and Gaza,” he said in a televised address.

“The worst year of our lives”

On the ground, witnesses reported, during the night from Monday to Tuesday, missile fire towards the city of Rafah (south) and bombings around the Jabaliya refugee camp (north). Fighting was also reported in the areas of al-Maghazi and Bureij, as well as in the main southern city of Khan Yunis, which has become the epicenter of Israeli army operations. “This is the worst year of our lives,” Gaza resident Sami Hamouda, 64, told AFP about 2023. “Every day is like the previous one: bombings, deaths and massacres.

The bloody attack on October 7 by Hamas, classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, Israel and the European Union in particular, left around 1,140 dead in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP count carried out in from official Israeli data. In response, Israel has vowed to “destroy” the Islamist movement in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007, and has relentlessly shelled the small territory where 129 people out of some 250 taken hostage on October 7 are still being held by Hamas and its local allies.

The war has caused immense destruction and a humanitarian disaster in the Palestinian territory placed by Israel under total siege since October 9, where famine threatens and most hospitals are out of service. It also cost the lives of 173 Israeli soldiers, killed inside Gaza.

“Desperate” conditions

Witnesses in northern Gaza told AFP on Monday that they saw Israeli forces leaving several areas in and around Gaza City, likely suggesting a redeployment rather than a permanent withdrawal. Army spokesman Daniel Hagari said the Israeli army was “adapting planning for the deployment of forces in Gaza,” including for reserve soldiers, because “the fighting will continue and they will always be needed.” .

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said residents of some towns and villages near the Gaza border, many of whom have been evacuated since the October 7 attacks, could “soon return home.” “. The 2.4 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, 85% of whom have been displaced according to the UN, face serious shortages of food, water, fuel and medicine.

Despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding the delivery of humanitarian aid, aid trucks are arriving in trickles. On Sunday, around 120 humanitarian trucks were able to enter Gaza. In the southern border town of Rafah, Mostafa Shennar, 43, from Gaza City, told AFP that living conditions were “simply hopeless”.

Violence in the West Bank

International efforts, including those of Egypt and Qatar, to secure a new truce, have not materialized at this stage. At the end of November, a one-week truce allowed the release of more than 100 hostages and the entry of limited aid into Gaza. In addition to the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank has also experienced an outbreak of violence, with more than 300 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces and settlers since October.

Israel carried out raids around several towns in the occupied West Bank during the night, including Ramallah, Jericho and Jenin, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported early Tuesday. Israeli human rights NGO Yesh Din announced Monday that 2023 had been the most violent year on record for settler attacks in territory occupied by Israel since 1967, “both in terms of the number of incidents and of gravity”.