image1
Saleh al-Arouri, the deputy head of the political bureau of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas (Photo by al-Mayadeen)

The deputy head of the political bureau of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has been assassinated in an Israeli drone attack in the southern suburb of the Lebanese capital of Beirut.

Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen television network reported on Tuesday that Saleh al-Arouri was killed as a result of an explosion in a building in al-Musharrafieh district in southern Beirut.

Arouri was killed in a "treacherous Zionist strike," the television network said, adding that the blast took place after an Israeli drone bombed the building with three missiles, killing six people and wounding several others.

Hamas confirmed the martyrdom of Arouri as the chief of staff of the resistance movement in the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip, praising him as the "architect" of Operation al-Aqsa Storm.

Hamas vowed in a statement that the killing of the resistance movement’s deputy will not "undermine the continued brave resistance" in Gaza.

"It proves once more the utter failure of the enemy to achieve any of its aggressive goals in the Gaza Strip," Izzat al-Rishq, a member of the political bureau of Hamas, said in the statement.

The Israeli regime launched its devastating war on the Gaza Strip on October 7 after the territory’s Hamas-led Palestinian resistance groups carried out a surprise retaliatory attack, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, against the occupying entity.

The Israeli military has also been carrying out attacks against the Lebanese territory since then, prompting retaliatory strikes from Lebanon’s resistance movement Hezbollah in support of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

The movement has vowed to keep up its retaliatory operations as long as the regime continues its onslaught on Gaza.

The relentless Israeli military campaign against Gaza has killed more than 22,000 people, most of them women and children. At least 57,000 individuals have also been wounded.

The regime has largely cut off access to water, food and power supplies to Gaza.