Lebanon’s Hezbollah group has warned that Israel’s killing of the deputy Hamas leader in a Beirut suburb they control “will not go unanswered or unpunished”. The group called it “a serious assault on Lebanon”, AFP reports.

“We, Hezbollah, affirm that this crime will not go unanswered or unpunished,” the movement said in a statement that called it “a serious assault on Lebanon… and a dangerous development in the course of the war,” the statement added.

An Israeli strike killed Saleh al-Aruri, deputy head of the Hamas movement, in a southern Beirut stronghold of Hamas ally Hezbollah, two security officials told AFP.

Hamas, battling with Israel in the Gaza Strip for almost three months, later confirmed Aruri’s death which Lebanese state media said came in an Israeli drone strike that killed a total of six people.

Hezbollah has engaged in near-daily cross-border clashes with Israel since Israel’s war with Hamas began in October. The group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah is set to give a televised speech today.