Senior Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri died on Tuesday evening in an Israeli drone strike on the Beirut suburb of Dahiyehem, according to a report by the Palestinian group’s Al-Aqsa radio station and three security sources who spoke to Reuters.
In response to questions from Reuters, the Israeli military said it does not respond to foreign media reports.
Arouri was a senior official in the Hamas Politburo and was a founding member of the military wing, the Qassam Brigades, which carried out a deadly attack on Israeli territory on October 7. The US offered $5 million last year for information about him.
Hamas confirmed Arouri’s death via affiliated channel Al-Aqsa. Izzat al-Sharq, a member of the Hamas Politburo, said it was a “cowardly murder.”
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The Israeli drone hit a Hamas office in Dahiyeh in an attack that killed six people, the Lebanese state news agency reported.
Lebanon’s interim Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the explosion as a “new Israeli crime” and said it was an attempt to draw Lebanon into war.
A Reuters witness in Dahiyeh saw firefighters and paramedics gathering around a multi-storey building that appeared to have a hole on the third floor. Parts of dismembered bodies could be seen on the side of the road.
Dahiyeh is a stronghold of the powerful armed group Hezbollah. Hamas ally. Since the outbreak of hostilities between Hamas and the Israeli army in October, Hezbollah has exchanged fire with Israel across Lebanon’s southern border almost daily.
Israeli airstrikes and shelling have killed more than a hundred Hezbollah fighters and nearly two dozen civilians, including children, the elderly and several journalists, according to the group and security sources.
Source: La Neta Neta
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
