Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh on Tuesday said Arouri’s killing is “terrorist act,” a violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty and an expansion of Israel’s hostility against Palestinians.
‘Revenge, revenge’
Islamic Jihad vowed revenge in a statement, saying: “This crime will not go unpunished and the resistance will continue until the occupation is removed.”
Iran said the killing would further galvanise the fight against Israel, while Yemen’s Houthi movement expressed condolences.
In Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, hundreds took to the streets to urge retaliation, shouting “Revenge, revenge, Qassam.”
A Reuters witness in Dahiyeh saw firefighters and paramedics gathered around a multi-storey building with a gaping hole in what appeared to be the third floor. Limbs and other pieces of flesh could be seen on the roadside.
People gather outside a damaged building following a massive explosion in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, Lebanon.Credit: AP
Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati called the strike a “new Israeli crime” and said it was an attempt to pull Lebanon into war. His office said he asked Lebanon’s foreign minister to file a complaint to the United Nations Security Council.
In a written statement, Hezbollah said the attack “will not go without a response or punishment,” adding that the resistance has “its finger on the trigger.” It announced an attack on Israeli forces across the border but did not specify whether it was in response to Arouri’s killing.
Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah plans an address on Wednesday to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the killing of Iranian Quds Force chief Qassem Suleimani in a U.S. drone strike on Baghdad.
In a televised speech in August, Nasrallah had cautioned Israel against carrying out any assassinations on Lebanese soil, vowing a “severe reaction”.
Divisions with Israel: US President Joe Biden.Credit: AP
Hezbollah controls security in the southern suburb of Dahiyeh. In 2019, two Israeli drones crashed in the district.
Hezbollah has been exchanging near-daily fire with Israel since Hamas carried out the Oct. 7 attack, but the violence has mostly been limited to the border region between Lebanon and Israel.
Israeli air strikes and shelling have killed more than 100 Hezbollah fighters and nearly two dozen civilians since then, including children, elderly people and several journalists.
A Reuters witness in Dahiyeh saw firefighters and paramedics gathered around a multi-storey building with a gaping hole in what appeared to be the third floor. Limbs and other pieces of flesh could be seen on the roadside.
Dahiyeh is a stronghold of powerful armed group Hezbollah, a Hamas ally. Hezbollah has been exchanging near-daily fire with Israel across Lebanon’s southern frontier since the eruption of hostilities between Hamas and the Israeli military in October.
Israeli air strikes and shelling have killed more than 100 Hezbollah fighters and nearly two dozen civilians, including children, elderly and several journalists, according to Hezbollah and security sources.
US criticism
In a rare public rebuke that underscores deepening divisions between the US and Israel over the Palestinian territory’s fate, the Biden administration criticised two Israeli ministers over their call to resettle Palestinians outside the Gaza Strip.
Rhetoric by ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir “is inflammatory and irresponsible” and “should stop immediately,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement on Tuesday.
“We have been clear, consistent, and unequivocal that Gaza is Palestinian land and will remain Palestinian land, with Hamas no longer in control of its future and with no terror groups able to threaten Israel,” Miller added.
The State Department has repeatedly rejected such calls for resettlement but has rarely mentioned ministers who made them by name. Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported that Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, had called for a plan that would see Palestinians in Gaza emigrate to other countries. Smotrich, the finance minister, had called for Jewish settlements in Gaza, according to Haaretz.
Reuters, Bloomberg