BEIRUT, Jan 2 (Reuters) - Deputy Hamas chief Saleh al-Arouri was killed on Tuesday night in an Israeli drone strike on Beirut's southern suburbs of Dahiyeh, a stronghold of the allied Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, signalling the conflict between Hamas and Israel could be expanding to engulf more of the region.
In response to questions from Reuters, the Israeli military said it does not respond to reports in the foreign media.
Lebanon's national news agency said the drone struck a Hamas office. Two security sources said the strike had targeted a meeting between Hamas officials and Lebanon's Sunni Islamist Jama'a Islamiya faction and left a total of four Palestinians and three Lebanese dead.
The strike marks the first targeted assassination of a Hamas official outside Palestinian Territories since the Palestinian group's deadly assault on Israeli territory on Oct. 7.
Mark Regev, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told MSNBC that Israel had not taken responsibility for this attack, but "whoever did it, it must be clear: That this was not an attack on the Lebanese state."
"Whoever did this did a surgical strike against the Hamas leadership," Regev said in the interview.
Arouri was deputy head of Hamas's politburo and a founder of its military wing, the Qassam Brigades.
He had spent time recently in both Lebanon and Qatar, which has mediated talks between Hamas and Israel including on hostages Hamas took in its Oct. 7 assault. The U.S., which brands Hamas a terrorist group, had last year offered $5 million for information on Arouri.
Hamas confirmed Arouri's killing and said Qassam Brigade officials Samir Findi Abu Amer and Azzam Al-Aqraa Abu Ammar were also killed.
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.
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 galvanize 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."
Photo from Reuters
