Israeli aircraft targeted an office belonging to Hamas in the southern suburb of Beirut, resulting in six deaths and 18 injuries, along with significant material damage. Reports indicated that the missile strike targeted an apartment and a car, which explains the sound of multiple explosions. According to Al-Manar TV, the targeted individual was Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri, whose office was bombed in the suburb. Hamas reported the deaths of two of its leaders who were in a meeting with al-Arouri at the time. The targeted location is near the Al-Haidari sweets shop in southern Beirut, where smoke was seen rising.
Reuters reported the death of a senior Palestinian official in the explosion in southern Beirut. Israel had threatened to assassinate Saleh al-Arouri weeks ago.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the attack in southern Beirut, describing it as "a new Israeli crime." Mikati noted that this explosion is a new Israeli crime aimed at dragging Lebanon into a new phase of confrontations, following ongoing daily attacks in the south that have resulted in many martyrs and injuries. He stated that this explosion is certainly a way to entangle Lebanon and is a clear response to efforts made to keep the shadow of the ongoing war in Gaza away from Lebanon. He stressed the need for concerned countries to pressure Israel to stop its attacks and warned against the Israeli political level exporting its failures in Gaza to the southern border to impose new facts and rules of engagement.
Al-Aqsa Radio, affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), announced that Saleh al-Arouri, a senior member of the movement, was killed on Tuesday. Three security sources told Reuters that al-Arouri was killed in an Israeli drone strike on the southern suburb of Beirut. Israeli Channel 14 reported that a drone targeted a building in the southern suburb with the intention of assassinating a senior Palestinian figure.
Lebanese security has cordoned off the explosion site, and Channel 13 reported that "the leader who was assassinated was supposed to meet Nasrallah tomorrow." Lebanese security forces are firing shots to disperse the crowds.
Hezbollah announced that the timing of the party's Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah's speech remains unchanged for tomorrow.
**Who is Saleh al-Arouri?**
Saleh al-Arouri is a Palestinian political and military leader, deputy head of the political bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement "Hamas." He played a significant role in founding Hamas's military wing in the West Bank (Al-Qassam Brigades). He was arrested and spent about 15 years in Israeli prisons before being exiled from Palestinian territories, and he currently resides in Lebanon. He hails from the village of Aroura, near Ramallah, was born in 1966, studied Islamic law, and obtained a bachelor's degree from Hebron University. He joined Hamas in 1987 and has been a member of its political bureau since 2010.
