Palestinian Fighters Warn Israel After Senior Hamas Leader Killed in Beirut
Armed Palestinian factions have issued a new warning to Israel in response to the assassination of a senior
Hamas official in the capital of Lebanon as the war in the Gaza Strip rages on in the first days of 2024.
Reports emerged Tuesday of an explosion in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, a stronghold of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement engaged in cross-border attacks on Israel in solidarity with the Palestinian campaign in Gaza. As unnamed sources appearing in Israeli and Lebanese media reported on the death of senior Hamas political bureau member Saleh al-Arouri, several Palestinian groups confirmed the news and threatened to further escalate the ongoing conflict.
"The cowardly assassination crime against Sheikh Saleh and the leaders of the resistance will not weaken the strength of the resistance, but rather will inflame it in Palestine and on all fronts of confrontation with the Zionist enemy," the Popular Resistance Committees, believed to be the
third most powerful faction in Gaza after Hamas and Islamic Jihad, said in a statement.
"The policy of assassinations pursued by the Zionist enemy against resistance leaders has proven its failure in undermining the resolve of our people who yearn to liberate their land from the filth of the Zionist enemy, no matter how great the sacrifices are," the group added.
The Popular Resistance Committees, whose military wing is known as the Al-Nasser Salah ad-Din Brigades, further warned that "the resistance will inevitably avenge the blood of Sheikh Saleh and for every drop of blood shed by our people in this open confrontation with the defeated Zionist enemy."
Maher al-Taher, international relations spokesperson for the left-wing Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, whose Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades is also involved in the fight against Israel, called the assassination "a crime that will not go unpunished" in a statement.
"This enemy will know that he made a mistake for which he will pay dearly," Taher said. "We say to all the free people of the world that the Palestinian people will not relent, will not retreat, and will continue to resist until their entire territory is liberated."
Palestinian Mujahideen Movement Deputy Secretary-General Salem Atallah mourned Arouri's death as well, and asserted that "the policy of assassinations will only make us stronger and more committed to our path until we sweep the occupation out of all of Palestine."
"The enemy will pay a heavy price for this cowardly crime and all the crimes he committed against our people," Atallah added.
Hamas, too, acknowledged the killing, sharing past statements by the late leader. Fellow senior political bureau member Izzat al-Risheq also criticized Israel's practice of targeted assassinations and vowed the group intended to fight on toward victory.
"The cowardly assassinations carried out by the Zionist occupation against the leaders and symbols of our Palestinian people inside and outside Palestine will not succeed in breaking the will and steadfastness of our people, or undermining the continuation of their valiant resistance," Risheq said. "It proves once again the abject failure of this enemy to achieve any of its aggressive goals in the Gaza Strip."
Israel has yet to claim responsibility for the assassination. An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson told
Newsweek that "we do not comment on reports in the foreign media," a standard response neither confirming nor denying Israel's involvement in alleged operations abroad.
Newsweek reached out to Hamas for comment.
The IDF and other Israel's intelligence agencies, including Mossad, have
a long history of conducting high-profile assassinations deep behind enemy lines. Arouri's death came as Israel appeared to be shifting its tactics in its most intensive war to date in Gaza, which began with an unprecedented surprise attack led by Hamas against Israel on October 7.
As the United States openly called upon its ally to adopt a more targeted phase of the ongoing conflict amid mounting international pressure over growing Palestinian civilian casualties, the IDF announced Monday it would be withdrawing two brigades from Gaza this week, followed by three more at a later date.
Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu has nonetheless continued to reassert his commitment to achieving a decisive win in a conflict he and his government have acknowledged could last for some time.
Mourning the loss of an IDF sergeant killed in northern Gaza, Netanyahu vowed in a post on X, formerly known as
Twitter, "we continue until the end, until the absolute victory."
Non-Palestinian factions aligned with the Iran-backed "Axis of Resistance" that is opposed to Israel and the U.S. also reacted to Arouri's death on Tuesday, asserting their own determination to continue waging war on Israel and its supporters.
The political bureau of Yemen's Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthi movement, condemned the assassination, along with the deaths of two members of Hamas' military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, stating that the alleged Israeli attack was "a violation of all international laws and humanitarian norms, and provides additional bloody witness to the level of Israeli brutality and barbarism."
Ansar Allah, whose maritime campaign against commercial vessels with suspected ties to Israel had drawn a
U.S. military response off the coast of Yemen, also took direct aim at Washington, arguing that "the Israeli enemy would not have dared to commit this crime without American support and assistance."
