Israel still shells Gaza

(Updated throughout with details)

by Laila Bassam, Nidal al-Mughrabi and Arafat Barbakh

BEIRUT/CAIRO/GAZA (Reuters) – Palestinian Hamas political bureau number two Saleh al-Arouri was killed in an Israeli drone attack on the outskirts of the Lebanese capital Beirut on Tuesday evening, sources said Lebanese and Palestinian security forces, while the Israeli army intensified its bombings in the south of the Gaza Strip.

Hamas, via its Al Aqsa radio, confirmed that Saleh al-Arouri was killed in a drone attack on an office of the Palestinian group south of Beirut, a region considered a stronghold of Hezbollah – the Lebanese Shiite movement is aligned on Iran, like Hamas, which it has supported since the start of the new conflict in Gaza.

He is the highest-ranking Hamas representative killed since Israel promised to eradicate the Palestinian group, which it considers terrorist, in response to the October 7 attack in Israeli communities.

This assassination fuels the risk of a regional escalation of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, while exchanges of fire on the Israeli-Lebanese border between the IDF and Hezbollah have been almost daily since the beginning of October and on an unprecedented scale since the war of 2006.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied being behind the assassination of Saleh al-Arouri. Questioned by journalists, the Israeli army spokesperson declared that the IDF was focused on its objective of “eliminating Hamas” and was prepared for “any scenario” following the death of Al-Arouri.

An adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with American television channel MSNBC that Israel had not claimed responsibility for the attack. Regardless of who is responsible, added Mark Regev, “this is not an attack against the Lebanese state” but a “surgical strike” against the leadership of Hamas.

HAMAS DENOUNCES NEW ESCALATION BY ISRAEL

Saleh al-Arouri, 57, divided his time between Lebanon and Qatar where, according to a Hamas representative, he was “at the heart of the negotiations” led by Qatar and Egypt to find a solution to the conflict in the strip. from Gaza.

He was also considered involved in Hamas’s military affairs for having co-founded the group’s armed wing, the Al Qassam Brigades, which planned the October 7 attack. Israel accused him of ordering and supervising attacks in the occupied West Bank.

The drone attack carried out against a building in Daniyeh, south of Beirut, left a total of six dead, according to the official Lebanese press. Two security sources said the attack was carried out during a meeting of Hamas officials.

Via Telegram messaging, the Hamas television channel indicated that two commanders of the Al Qassam brigades were also killed in this strike.

The Lebanese interim Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, denounced a “new Israeli crime”, which he said he considered a new attempt to bring Lebanon into war. His services indicated that a complaint would be transmitted to the United Nations Security Council to denounce, in particular, a violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty.

Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’s foreign-based political bureau, said in a televised address that it was a “terrorist act” and a new escalation in Israel’s hostility against the Palestinians.

This attack comes on the eve of a speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who warned in November, during his first public speech since the start of the new conflict, of the risk of a “vast war” if Israel did not stop its bombings.

“DANGEROUS DEVELOPMENT” OF THE CONFLICT

Hezbollah, a heavily armed movement, declared Tuesday that the assassination of Saleh al-Arouri was a “dangerous development” in the conflict and promised that the attack would not go “unanswered or punished.”

According to Hezbollah and security sources, Israeli bombings in southern Lebanon on the sidelines of the Gaza offensive killed more than a hundred Hezbollah fighters and around twenty civilians, including children, as well as journalists.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry said the assassination of Saleh al-Arouri would give even more motivation to the “axis of resistance” fighting against Israel, according to comments reported by the official press in Tehran.

In response to the October 7 attack which left 1,200 dead and during which around 240 hostages were taken to Gaza, Israel launched a vast air and land offensive in the Palestinian enclave, with the announced objective of ” eradicate” Hamas and any security threat from the territory.

According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, 207 people were killed in the Gaza Strip over the past twenty-four hours, bringing to more than 22,000 the number of Palestinians killed in the enclave since October 7 – the most recent period. bloodiest in the history of the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In the occupied West Bank, where the UN deplored a “rapid deterioration” of Palestinian rights and urged Israeli authorities to put an end to the violence, hundreds of people gathered Tuesday evening in Ramallah to demand revenge after the death of Saleh al -Arouri.

“INTENSE EFFORTS” IN SOUTHERN GAZA

In the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army has intensified its operations around Khan Younes, the main town in the south of the enclave, in order to find Hamas commanders who have taken refuge in tunnels, declared the Israeli Minister of Security. Defense.

“We are reaching them by all means,” Yoav Gallant told Israeli soldiers in Gaza, according to images broadcast by public television. “There are also hostages here, unfortunately,” he added, promising “intense efforts in the heart of Khan Younes.”

Israel says it believes 129 hostages are still being held in the Gaza Strip, after some of those kidnapped on October 7 were released as part of a one-week truce in late November, while others were released. been killed in airstrikes or failed rescue attempts.

Shortly before the announcement of the assassination of Saleh al-Arouri, Ismaïl Haniyeh indicated that he had transmitted his responses to the ceasefire proposal presented by Qatar and Egypt.

The head of Hamas’ political bureau recalled that the group wanted a “complete halt” to the Israeli offensive in Gaza as a condition for freeing additional hostages.

For its part, Israel repeats that it will not stop its offensive until it has eradicated Hamas and obtained the release of all the hostages held in the Gaza Strip.

“INCENDIARY AND IRRESPONSIBLE”

The United States, Israel’s main ally, has called on it to exercise restraint in its military operations which have ravaged entire neighborhoods of the Gaza Strip and displaced a large part of the enclave’s 2.3 million inhabitants. and caused a catastrophic humanitarian situation.

The US State Department denounced on Tuesday “inflammatory and irresponsible” comments by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who on Sunday called on Gaza residents to leave the enclave to make way for Israelis who are able to ” make the desert bloom.

Such remarks fuel fears among some of a new “Nakba” (“catastrophe”), as in 1948, when Palestinians were expelled or forced to flee their homes during the war that led to the creation of the State of ‘Israel.

In Paris, the Elysée announced that Emmanuel Macron spoke by telephone with Israeli Minister Benny Gantz to whom he declared that comments on a forced displacement of Gazans were “not acceptable”.

Such comments “contradict the two-state solution which constitutes the only viable solution for a return to peace and security for all”, he added, according to comments reported by the French presidency.

Emmanuel Macron also stressed that it was essential to avoid “any escalatory attitude, particularly in Lebanon”, indicated the Elysée, without specifying whether this interview took place before or after the announcement of Saleh’s assassination. al-Arouri.

Israel has indicated that it plans to withdraw some of the soldiers deployed in Gaza, suggesting a new phase of the conflict, but representatives also warned that its offensive in the enclave would last for many more months. A vagueness remains on Israel’s plans after the war.

(Reporting by Laila Bassam in Beirut, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo, Arafat Barbakh in Gaza, Maayan Lubell and Dan Williams in Jerusalem; written by Jean Terzian)