Violent explosion in the Lebanese capital Beirut!
According to police circles, this happened in a southern district where the Islamist terrorist militia Hezbollah has a particularly strong presence.
Lebanese state media reports an Israeli drone attack on an office of Palestinian Hamas terrorists. Four people are said to have been killed. “A hostile Israeli drone hit a Hamas office in Al-Musharrafiya, near Al-Shark Sweets,” Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported.
The target of the attack: Saleh al-Arouri, deputy head of the political bureau of the terrorist organization Hamas. The high-ranking Hamas official is said to have died. He was killed along with his bodyguards in the attack on the Hamas office south of Beirut, a senior security official told the AFP news agency on Tuesday.
Saleh al-Arouri, deputy head of the Hamas politburo, is said to have been killed in Beirut
The Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar television station also reported that the leader of the radical organization was dead. Shortly thereafter, Hamas confirmed al-Arouri’s death.
The exact reasons behind the explosion initially remained unclear. However, suspicions quickly arose that it could be a targeted killing – possibly by Israel’s army or on Israel’s behalf.
Arouri, one of the co-founders of the military wing of the radical Hamas, had led the group in the West Bank.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had already threatened to kill him before the war between Hamas and Israel began on October 7th. Netanyahu said Al-Aruri “knows very well why he and his friends are in hiding.”
Videos on social media showed at least one car burning near a busy street. Ambulance sirens could also be heard.
There have been fighting on the Lebanese-Israeli border since the beginning of the war. The Israeli Air Force has hit targets deeper in Lebanon on several occasions. Earlier in the day, Hezbollah said its fighters had carried out several attacks along the Lebanese-Israeli border on Israeli military posts.
The war was triggered by the terrorist attack by Hamas and other extremist groups on October 7th in Israel near the border with Gaza. They killed more than 1,200 people. Israel responded with massive air strikes and a ground offensive.