Israel’s most significant attack against a leader of the fundamentalist group Hamas in the last decade, Saleh al Arouriheld on Tuesday in Beirut, raises the possibility of war breaking out in the Gaza Strip spread significantly front with Hizbul.
Before the armed attack by Hamas on October 7, one of the main leaders and founders of its armed wing, Saleh al Arouri, was the main target of the Israeli intelligence services, which considered him the responsible for planning, financing and ordering numerous from abroad attacks in and from the West Bank.
The Israeli government, however, did not give the green light to the killing of Hamas number two – nicknamed Abu Mohamed – given the possibility that his assassination would cause a large-scale clash in the Gaza Strip. Eventually the order was reversed. After 88 days of war, a drone struck precisely an apartment in a neighborhood of Beirut where Arouri was meeting with several officials from the military wing of the Palestinian group in Lebanon, causing their death.
The fact that the targeted airstrike occurred in the suburb of Dahiyah raises the possibility that Hizbul leader Hassan Nasral, who is very close to Arouri, will order a retaliation that goes beyond the drones and anti-tank missiles launched in recent years. three months as a show of solidarity and support for Hamas.
Profile of Hamas «number 2».
Saleh al Arouri, Hamas negotiator and liaison with Iran
Saleh al Arouri, Hamas negotiator and liaison with Iran
IsraelThat He neither confirmed nor denied the unprecedented attack in Beirutis preparing for a «significant» attack, especially by the Chi militias, without however provoking a war like the one in 2006.
«We are prepared on all fronts and in all scenarios except us We are focused on the fight against Hamas«said army spokesman Daniel Hagari, without referring directly to the information coming from Beirut but underlining, without saying so explicitly, that their war is not against Hizbul.
Marc Regev, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said that his country «he did not take responsibility for this attack. But whoever did this should clarify: This was not an attack against the Lebanese state“Whoever did this carried out a surgical strike on the Hamas leadership,” he added.
The fire in the southern Gaza Strip (Khan Yunis), where the most intense clashes between soldiers and members of the armed wing of Hamas take place, has spread to Beirut, albeit selectively.
In mid-afternoon, an explosion occurred in a house located on the third floor of a building where Arouri and other Hamas leaders were staying. After several minutes of confusion, Lebanese media reported that six people had died and that the attack The operation was carried out by an Israeli drone. Once Arouri’s death was confirmed, the threats of revenge from Hizbul, Hamas and Islamic Jihad and the condemnation of the Lebanese authorities.
“The explosion in Dahiyah is an Israeli crime intended to drag Lebanon into a new phase of the conflict. It is a clear response to our efforts to distance the fighting spirit of Gaza from Lebanon,” reacted Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati.
Arouri’s role in the Hamas organization chart was even more decisive than that of being Ismail Haniya’s «number two». This is in fact the most important «targeted assassination» among the ranks of the terrorist group since 2011, when the Israeli air force killed the head of the armed wing, Ahmed Jabari, in the Gaza Strip.
On this occasion, this occurred far from the Palestinian enclave, controlled by Hamas since 2007, and from the West Bank where Arouri was born and was an important figure of the armed wing, aspiring, as he said, to be ‘shahid’ (martyr).
Released in 2010
After 17 years in prison, he was released in 2010. Arouri, the mastermind of attacks like that kidnapping and murder of three Jewish teenagers in 2014he settled in Istanbul where he directed Azzadin Al Qassam’s operations in the West Bank.
After leaving Turkey and a stay in Qatar, where Haniya is located, Arouri traveled to Beirut under Nasral’s protection. The reason was not only to strengthen its cooperation with Hizbul and the sponsor of both (Iran) as part of the «multiple fronts against the Zionist enemy» strategy, but also because it rightly thought that Israel would not dare to attempt to assassinate him in Lebanon.
Nasral himself had warned in August of a strong response if Israel decided to eliminate any Palestinian, Iranian, Syrian or Lebanese leader in its territory. But on October 7 the rules of the game changed. The fact that one of the most viewed recent pictures of Arouri out with Haniya before prayer watching live television THE unit attacks Nukba In Israel accelerated the process of liquidating it. Arouri knew this and if he didn’t he simply had to listen to Netanyahu.
«All leaders of the terrorist group Hamas are living dead»he warned a few weeks ago, confirming something that had surprised no one after the largest attack in the history of Israel: «I have ordered the Mossad to act against the leaders of Hamas wherever they are.»
A senior Islamic official, Izzat Al Rishq, warned that “the cowardly murders perpetrated by the Zionist occupation against the leaders and symbols of our people inside and outside Palestine will neither succeed in breaking the will and steadfastness of our people nor weaken the continuation of the conflict. his courageous resistance.
As a first reaction, HAmas has frozen contacts for a new ceasefire and the release of the 129 kidnapped still in captivity in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. In recent days, representatives of Israeli security agencies and Hamas leaders traveled to Cairo to meet separately with the hosts.
Before learning of Arouri’s killing, Haniya clarified on Tuesday that «prisoners of the enemy will only be released under conditions set by the resistance.»
