Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah condemns 'dangerous' killing of Hamas deputy leader Saleh al Arouri

Sky News

Updated 3 January 2024 at 5:38 pm·3-min read

The leader of Hezbollah has condemned the "dangerous" killing of Hamas's deputy leader, and warned Israel there will be "no ceiling and no rules" if it wages war on Lebanon.

Hassan Nasrallah vowed his militant group "will not be silent" following the killing of Saleh al Arouri in a drone strike in southern Beirut yesterday.

Hezbollah, which - like Hamas - is backed by Iran, has claimed Israel was behind the attack.

But Tel Aviv has not confirmed or denied it carried it out, with an Israeli government adviser saying "whoever did this did a surgical strike against the Hamas leadership".

Hezbollah leader warns Israel in speech - live updates

Fears of Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza growing into a wider conflict remain, and in a televised address, Nasrallah said "war with us will be very costly".

He added that anyone waging war against Lebanon "will regret it" as Hezbollah will fight "until the end".

Nasrallah offered his condolences to Hamas for what he called a "flagrant Israeli aggression" on Tuesday night that killed al Arouri.

It was the first strike to hit Lebanon's capital following nearly three months of almost daily clashes between the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and Hezbollah which have been confined to the border region.

Nasrallah's comments came before a local Hezbollah leader was killed in a strike in southern Lebanon, Sky News has been told.

The official has been named as Hussein Yazbek. The strike hit Naqoura, with reports suggesting three or four people were killed.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the strike.

Hezbollah's support for Hamas

Hezbollah launched rockets across the border towards Israel on 8 October in support of Hamas.

A day earlier, Hamas had carried out a deadly assault in southern Israel that prompted a fierce Israeli bombing campaign of the Gaza Strip.

Nasrallah claims his group's "quick" actions on 8 October, and the cross-border shelling since then, had stopped a broader aerial bombardment of Lebanon by Israel.

Al Arouri, 57, is the first senior Hamas political leader to be assassinated since the IDF began its offensive against the Palestinian militant group in response to its 7 October border assault.

Speaking to MSNBC, Mark Regev, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, described yesterday's drone attack as a "surgical strike against the Hamas leadership" and not an attack on the Lebanese state or Hezbollah.

Al Arouri was one of the founders of Hamas's military wing and the deputy leader of the group's political bureau. He also headed Hamas's presence in the West Bank.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said the blast in Beirut's Dahiyeh suburb killed four people and was carried out by an Israeli drone.

Hamas's Al Aqsa TV said commanders of the group's armed wing in Lebanon - Samir Findi Abu Amer and Azzam al Aqraa Abu Ammar - were among the dead.

Izzat al Rishq, a member of the political bureau of Hamas, said al Arouri was killed in a "cowardly assassination" by Israel - and warned such attacks "will not succeed in breaking the will and steadfastness of our people, or undermining the continuation of their valiant resistance".

He added: "It proves once again the abject failure of this enemy to achieve any of its aggressive goals in the Gaza Strip."

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