Israel's war against Palestinian militants reached Lebanon on Tuesday, where an Israeli strike killed Hamas's deputy leader, the group and security officials in Lebanon said, reports BSS.
A high-level security official told AFP that 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.
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 hostilities 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 second 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 adds to widespread fears that the nearly three-month-old Israel-Hamas war could become a wider regional conflagration.
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".
Hamas's bloody attack on October 7 resulted in the deaths of around 1,140 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also took around 250 hostages back to Gaza -- which has been ruled by Hamas since 2007 -- of whom 129 remain in captivity, according to Israeli figures.
After the attack, the worst in its history, Israel began a relentless bombardment and ground offensive that has killed at least 22,185 people, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's health ministry.
Bd-praitidin English/Tanvir Raihan
