BEIRUT: A high-level Lebanese security official said on Wednesday that Israel had fired guided missiles from a warplane to kill Hamas number two Saleh Al Aruri.

“Aruri was killed in strikes using guided missiles which were launched by an Israeli warplane,” the official said.

“A drone could not have carried out such a precise strike,” said the official with knowledge of the official Lebanese investigation into Aruri’s killing.

According to the official, the guided missiles used in the attack weigh around 100 kilos, making them too heavy to have been fired by a drone.

Hezbollah head vows group will not remain silent over Hamas leader’s killing

Six missiles were used in Tuesday’s attack, four of which exploded, the official said.

Two of the missiles that detonated pierced through two floors and exploded in a room where Aruri was holding a meeting with other Hamas officials, the source added.

A preliminary investigation by the Lebanese army indicates that remnants of those missile match those used by the Israeli army during cross-border exchanges with Hezbollah and other groups in southern Lebanon, the source said.

Aruri is the most high-profile figure to be killed since the Hamas raid on Oct 7. He was killed in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, and it was the first strike to reach the Lebanese capital since then.

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.

In a statement on Tuesday, Hezbollah warned that Aruri’s killing in a Beirut suburb they control “will not go unanswered or unpunished”.

The near-daily cross-border fire between Hezbollah and Israel has left more than 165 people dead in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah members but also more than 20 civilians, including three journalists.

On the Israeli side, four civilians and nine soldiers have been killed, according to figures from the military.

Won’t remain silent

The head of Hezbollah said on Wednesday that Israel’s killing of the deputy chief of Hamas in Beirut was “a major, dangerous crime about which we cannot be silent”.

In a televised speech, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah offered his condolences to Hamas for what he called a “flagrant Israeli aggression” on Tuesday night that killed Saleh Al Arouri.

Tuesday’s strike hit the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, in what analysts have said could also be a message from Israel to Hezbollah that even its prime stronghold there can be reached.

It was the first strike to hit Beirut since the Oct 7 Hamas raid in Israel. Hezbollah launched rockets across the border on Oct 8 in support of Hamas.

Hezbollah, founded by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in 1982, is the spearhead of a Tehran-backed alliance hostile to Israel and the United States. It fought a month-long war against Israel in 2006.

Nasrallah said Hezbollah’s “quick” action on Oct 8 and the cross-border shelling since then had prevented a broader bombing campaign by Israel of Lebanon.

He vowed that there would be “no ceilings” and “no rules” to his group’s fighting if Israel chose to launch a war on Lebanon.

“Whoever thinks of war with us _ in one word, he will regret it,” Nasrallah said.

Published in Dawn, January 4th, 2024