Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that a drone struck a Hamas office. Two security sources said the strike was aimed at a meeting between Hamas officials and the Lebanese Sunni Islamist group “Jama’ah Islamiyah,” which killed a total of four Palestinians and three Lebanese.
The strike marks the first targeted killing of a Hamas official outside the Palestinian territories since the Palestinian group attacked Israeli territory on October 7.
Mark Regev, a top adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told MSNBC that Israel has not claimed responsibility for the attack, but “whoever did it should come clean. It was not an attack on the Lebanese state.”
“But whoever did it should be clear that this was not an attack on the Lebanese state. It wasn’t even an attack on Hezbollah, a terrorist organization. “Whoever did this dealt a surgical blow to the leadership of Hamas,” Regev said.
It should be noted that the murdered Aruri was the deputy head of the political bureau of Hamas and the founder of the “Qassam Brigades” military wing of the organization.
