Hamas deputy killed by drone

Fears conflict will widen

Hamas’s deputy leader was killed in an Israeli drone strike in suburban Beirut as Israel’s war against Palestinian militants reached Lebanon.

Saleh al-Aruri was killed along with his bodyguards in the strike by Israel, which vowed to destroy Hamas after the movement’s unprecedented October 7 attacks on Israel.

Aruri, one of the founders of Hamas’ military wing, had headed the group’s presence in the West Bank and had been a target for Israel even before the October 7 attack that killed 1,200 Israelis.

Israel has previously announced the killing in Gaza of Hamas commanders and officials during the war, but Aruri is the most high-profile figure to be killed, and his death came in the first strike on the Lebanese capital since the war began. Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari did not directly comment on Aruri’s killing but said the military was “highly prepared for any scenario” in its aftermath.

A security official in Lebanon confirmed the information about Aruri’s killing.

Lebanese state media reported the strike hit a Hamas office in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a stronghold of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, a Hamas ally.

Hamas TV also said Israel had killed Aruri in Lebanon, and Lebanese media reported a total of seven people were killed in the attack by an Israeli drone. The strike fuels widespread fears that the nearly three-month-old Israel-Hamas war could become a wider regional conflict.

Hamas said the killing would not lead to its defeat, while Hezbollah vowed Aruri’s death would not go “unpunished”.

Hezbollah called it “a serious assault on Lebanon … and a dangerous development in the course of the war”.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the killing and said it “aims to draw Lebanon” further into the Israel-Hamas war.

In a call with Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz after the strike, French President Emmanuel Macron urged Israel to “avoid any escalatory attitude, particularly in Lebanon”.

Since the fighting began on October 8, the fighting has been concentrated a few kilometres from the border but on several occasions Israel’s air force hit Hezbollah targets deeper in Lebanon.

Earlier in the day, Hezbollah said its fighters carried out several attacks along the Lebanon-Israel border targeting Israeli military posts. It comes as Israeli troops announced they had also killed a Hamas commander who helped lead the October 7 attack.

Adil Mismah, the Nukhba Company Commander of the city of Deir al-Balah, was “eliminated,” Israeli Defense Forces said via social media.

Mismah had led terrorists into the Kibbutz Kissufim and ordered other gunmen to ravage the communities of Nirim and Be’eri, according to The Jerusalem Post.

The commander was slain in an air strike directed by Israeli ground troops, officials said.