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GAZA: Israel kept bombing Gaza on Wednesday after the army warned it is ready for “any scenario” following a drone strike in Lebanon which killed the deputy leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, stoking fears of a regional escalation.
Although Israel did not claim the Beirut assassination on Tuesday evening, it was widely assumed to be behind the killing of Saleh al-Aruri, 57, the political number two of its enemy Hamas and one of the founders of the Islamist group’s military wing.
After Aruri and six others were killed in the attack, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said the military was in a “very high state of readiness in all arenas” and “highly prepared for any scenario”.
The Israeli armed forces again bombed Gaza overnight, including in the crowded southern city of Rafah where eyewitnesses said survivors flocked to Al-Najjar Hospital to mourn the dead, including a child.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after the militant group’s bloody October 7 attack and has launched a relentless military campaign in Gaza that has claimed over 22,000 lives, according to the territory’s health ministry.
Israel has labelled Hamas’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar a “dead man walking” and vowed to also kill other commanders of the Islamist movement considered a “terrorist” group by the United States and European Union.
Amid the almost three-month-old war, Israel has traded almost daily cross-border fire with the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed ally of Hamas, while so far avoiding a full-scale war.
Maha Yahya of think tank the Carnegie Middle East Center told AFP that Aruri’s killing was “a significant escalation” but added: “I don’t think Hezbollah will be willing to drag Lebanon into a major conflict at this particular moment and time given the situation regionally”.
Violence has also flared with other militant groups in the Iran-led “Axis of Resistance”, including in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, where Huthi rebels have attacked cargo vessels in the Red Sea, a key shipping lane for world trade.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian condemned the “cowardly” Beirut strike and said it proved that Israel “has not achieved any of its goals after weeks of war crimes, genocide and destruction in Gaza and the West Bank of Palestine, despite the direct support of the White House”.
Dangerous development
Hezbollah vowed Aruri’s killing would not go unpunished and labelled it “a serious assault on Lebanon… and a dangerous development”.
The Shiite Muslim group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, who has lived in hiding for years, was due to deliver a televised address on Wednesday evening.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati charged that the killing “aims to draw Lebanon” deeper into the war, while French President Emmanuel Macron urged Israel to “avoid any escalatory attitude, particularly in Lebanon”.
In the Israel-occupied West Bank — the Palestinian territory where Aruri was born, and which has seen an upsurge in violence since October 7 — the Palestinian Authority called a general strike to mourn his death.
Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh also condemned the killing and warned of its “risks and consequences”. Follow channel on WhatsApp
GAZA: Israel kept bombing Gaza on Wednesday after the army warned it is ready for “any scenario” following a drone strike in Lebanon which killed the deputy leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, stoking fears of a regional escalation.
Although Israel did not claim the Beirut assassination on Tuesday evening, it was widely assumed to be behind the killing of Saleh al-Aruri, 57, the political number two of its enemy Hamas and one of the founders of the Islamist group’s military wing.
After Aruri and six others were killed in the attack, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said the military was in a “very high state of readiness in all arenas” and “highly prepared for any scenario”.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });
The Israeli armed forces again bombed Gaza overnight, including in the crowded southern city of Rafah where eyewitnesses said survivors flocked to Al-Najjar Hospital to mourn the dead, including a child.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after the militant group’s bloody October 7 attack and has launched a relentless military campaign in Gaza that has claimed over 22,000 lives, according to the territory’s health ministry.
Israel has labelled Hamas’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar a “dead man walking” and vowed to also kill other commanders of the Islamist movement considered a “terrorist” group by the United States and European Union.
Amid the almost three-month-old war, Israel has traded almost daily cross-border fire with the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed ally of Hamas, while so far avoiding a full-scale war.
Maha Yahya of think tank the Carnegie Middle East Center told AFP that Aruri’s killing was “a significant escalation” but added: “I don’t think Hezbollah will be willing to drag Lebanon into a major conflict at this particular moment and time given the situation regionally”.
Violence has also flared with other militant groups in the Iran-led “Axis of Resistance”, including in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, where Huthi rebels have attacked cargo vessels in the Red Sea, a key shipping lane for world trade.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian condemned the “cowardly” Beirut strike and said it proved that Israel “has not achieved any of its goals after weeks of war crimes, genocide and destruction in Gaza and the West Bank of Palestine, despite the direct support of the White House”.
Dangerous development
Hezbollah vowed Aruri’s killing would not go unpunished and labelled it “a serious assault on Lebanon… and a dangerous development”.
The Shiite Muslim group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, who has lived in hiding for years, was due to deliver a televised address on Wednesday evening.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati charged that the killing “aims to draw Lebanon” deeper into the war, while French President Emmanuel Macron urged Israel to “avoid any escalatory attitude, particularly in Lebanon”.
In the Israel-occupied West Bank — the Palestinian territory where Aruri was born, and which has seen an upsurge in violence since October 7 — the Palestinian Authority called a general strike to mourn his death.
Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh also condemned the killing and warned of its “risks and consequences”. Follow channel on WhatsApp
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