‘No one is safe’, US official says after Hamas’ No. 2 is killed in Lebanon
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Saleh al-Arouri was assassinated in an explosion in a suburb of Beirut, Lebanon’s capital.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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Beirut – Hamas on Jan 2 accused Israel of killing Saleh al-Arouri, a top leader of the group, along with two commanders from its armed wing, the Qassam Brigades.
Arouri is the most senior Hamas figure to be killed
Arouri was assassinated in an explosion in a suburb of Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, marking the first such assassination of a top Hamas official outside the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in recent years. It comes as officials across the region are worried about the war in Gaza igniting a wider conflagration.
Israeli officials would not comment on whether their forces had targeted Arouri, but officials from Lebanon and the United States ascribed the attack to Israel. A senior US official said it was most likely the first of many strikes that Israel would carry out against Hamas operatives connected to the Oct 7 assault.
“No one is safe if they had any hand in planning, raising money for or carrying out these attacks,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal discussions. “This is just the beginning, and it’ll go on for years.”
The explosion shattered the tense calm that had prevailed in Beirut ever since Hezbollah, a powerful Lebanese militant group that is a Hamas ally, began clashing with Israeli forces in the wake of the Oct 7 attack.
Videos verified by The New York Times show at least one car engulfed in flames in front of a high-rise building after the explosion, as dozens of people gather in the area.
Israel did not warn the United States about the attack beforehand, but briefed senior American officials when it was under way, a US official said, confirming a report by the Axios news site.
As news of Arouri’s death spread, the Israeli military said on Jan 2 that it had begun withdrawing some soldiers from parts of Gaza, part of a planned pullout, but its forces continued pounding the enclave with air strikes, residents said.
The pullback was accompanied by an announcement by the US Navy that it would withdraw from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, which President Joe Biden had ordered to the eastern Mediterranean after Oct 7. The Navy said that a three-ship amphibious force would take over for the aircraft carrier in the region. NYTIMES
