Hamas, Hizbullah Vow Revenge After Hamas Deputy Leader Killed in Alleged Israeli Strike in Beirut

Hamas deputy political leader Saleh al-Arouri and six other people, including two of the terrorist group’s military commanders, were killed on Tuesday in an explosion in a Beirut apartment building attributed to an Israeli drone strike.

Lebanese state media reported that the men were attending a meeting at Hamas offices in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh when the strike took place. The precision strike hit a third-floor apartment said to be the Hamas office, destroying it and causing a large fire.

Hamas spokesman and senior official Izzat al-Rishq issued a statement describing the attack as “cowardly assassinations carried out by the Zionist occupation,” and saying that such attacks “will not succeed in breaking the will and steadfastness of our people or in undermining the continuation of their valiant resistance.” He also declared that the strike demonstrates “the abject failure of the enemy [Israel] to achieve any of its aggressive goals in the Gaza Strip.”

Iran-backed Hizbullah, which controls much of southern Lebanon and has been engaged in an escalating cross-border conflict with Israel, issued a statement calling the attack “a serious assault on Lebanon, its people, its security, and its sovereignty” and vowing revenge.

“We affirm that this crime will never pass without response and punishment,” the statement said.

Israeli officials declined to comment.

Al-Arouri, 57, was one of the founders of Hamas’ military wing and was deputy head of its political bureau since 2017. After living in Turkey for many years, he reportedly moved to Lebanon in 2015. As a top adviser to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, he was said to have been Hamas’ chief diplomatic emissary to Hizbullah and an important liaison man with Iran. Considered Hamas’ most notorious figure in orchestrating terrorism against Israel in the West Bank, he was long wanted by Israel.

Also confirmed killed in the strike were Hamas military commanders Samir Findi and Azzam Al-Aqraa, as well as Hamas members Mahmoud Shaheen, Muhammad Bashasha, Muhammad al-Rayes and Ahmed Hammoud. Findi oversaw Hamas military activities in Lebanon, including the firing of rockets at Israel, and was considered Hamas’ contact man with the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. Al-Aqraa reportedly orchestrated terrorist activities in the West Bank.