The Prime Minister of the Government of the Palestinian National Authority, Mohamed Shtayeh, condemned this Tuesday “the assassination” of the number two of the Hamas movement, Saleh al-Arouri, and implicitly accused Israel of its responsibility.
The Palestinian leader called al-Arouri’s death in a drone attack in Beirut “a crime that carries with it the identity of its perpetrators,” in an implicit reference to Israel, although he did not mention it directly.
Shtayeh warned of “the risks and repercussions that could arise from this crime” and expressed his “deepest condolences to the Palestinian people, the Hamas movement and the family of the martyr” of the Islamist movement that has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007.
The Palestinian Authority has control of parts of the occupied West Bank, but not the Gaza Strip, where Hamas has been fighting Israel for almost three months.
Hamas today confirmed the death of al-Arouri in the bombing with an Israeli drone against an office of the Palestinian group on the southern outskirts of Beirut, where five other people were also killed.
The movement blamed “the Zionist occupation,” referring to Israel, for the “cowardly murder” of Palestinian leaders and stated that the bombing of its office in Beirut “demonstrates once again the complete failure of this enemy to reach any of its belligerent objectives”. .in the Gaza Strip.”
Hamas’s armed wing, the al-Qasam Brigades, of which al-Arouri was a co-founder, promised “a response” to his death.
In turn, after learning of al-Arouri’s death, protest marches calling for revenge against Israel were held in several cities and refugee camps in the West Bank, according to local press.
Israeli authorities have not yet confirmed who was responsible for this attack in Beirut.
Al Arouri, a member of Hamas’s political cabinet and one of the founders of its armed wing, was one of the most prominent exiled leaders of the group, which has several representatives in Lebanon, as well as in other countries in the region.
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This is the first time since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, which began on October 7, 2023, that Tel Aviv forces have attacked the Lebanese capital.
The clashes between the Israeli Army and the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, have so far been limited to the border areas of southern Lebanon, when in the Arab world and the international community there have been repeated warnings about the fear of conflict . spreading in the Strip, from Gaza, in Palestine, to other regions of the Middle East.
Later, in a statement, the presidency of the Lebanese Council of Ministers stated that Mikati ordered the presentation of an urgent complaint to the UN Security Council, “in the context of the flagrant attack on Lebanese sovereignty.”
In Lebanon since 2018, al-Arouri led the Palestinian group’s presence in the West Bank and was detained in Israeli prisons for 12 years before being released in 2010, taking credit for several attacks against Israel from Lebanese soil.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to kill him even before the current war against Hamas.
More recently, he was one of Hamas’s chief negotiators in the release of hostages taken by his group in the October 7 attack on Israel.
A month ago, speaking to Al Jazeera television, he said the remaining prisoners were soldiers or former soldiers and would not be released until Israel ended its attacks on the Gaza Strip.
The most recent conflict between Israel and Hamas was triggered after an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on Israeli territory on October 7 of last year, massacring 1,140 people, mostly civilians and including around 400 soldiers, according to official figures. from Tel Aviv.
In retaliation, Israel, which has vowed to eliminate the Palestinian movement, launched a large-scale offensive in the Gaza Strip, where, according to the local government, more than 22,000 people have already died, mostly women, children and adolescents. and injured: more than 57 thousand, mostly civilians.
Source: TSF
