After death of Hamas leader in Beirut: How will Hezbollah respond? | DW News

After death of Hamas leader in Beirut: How will Hezbollah respond? | DW News

We begin in Lebanon where the killing of a top Hamas official in Beirut is Raising fears that the Israel Gaza War could spread the militant group’s Deputy political leader Salah aruri and six others were killed in the strike on an apartment building a Lebanon state-run news agency said the attack was carried

Out by Israel the Israeli government for its part has stopped short of confirming whether it was behind the strike the aftermath of a deadly strike in the heart of Lebanon killing one of hamas’s most senior figures in the suburbs of Beirut eyewitnesses described hearing a drone before the

Blast at about 5:30 we heard the sound of an explosion then another explosion followed by a third blast a few seconds later there was lots of smoke the explosion shook our office Salah aruri was Deputy to hamas’s political leader Ismael Hana and a founder of the group’s military Wing the

Alasan brigades Hamas is designated as a terrorist group by the US and EU among others and aori was on a US terrorist list he had spent years in Israeli prisons at the time of his death aori was living in Lebanon as hamas’s ke liaison with the Lebanese militant group

Hezbollah aori also headed up ‘s presence in the occupied West Bank and his hometown was rala supporters there staged a rally in response to news of his death so this is not the end and uh if they killed one of the leaders more leaders and more uh Palestinian will

Take the flag and will continue the the the fighting against this occupation Israel has not claimed responsibility for the strike officials generally do not comment on operations outside of Israel and the Palestinian territories but Israeli officials had previously vowed to hunt down Hamas leaders wherever they

Are for Lebanon the strike on Beirut is seen as a violation of its territory the Lebanese prime minister called it an attempt to pull his country into Israel’s war with Hamas Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging near daily fire along the Lebanese Israeli border since the War Began this strike deep in Lebanese

Territory has raised concerns of a major retaliation from Hezbollah that would see the war spread far out across Israel’s northern border DW correspondent Tanya Kramer joins me now from Jerusalem uh Tanya Israel has neither confirmed nor denied that they are behind this attack uh yet Netanyahu has promised to go after

Anyone who was behind the October 7th attacks why do you think we haven’t seen a clearer statement regarding Israel’s alleged involvement well you’re right Israel has been very tight lipped about it they have neither denied nor confirmed the involvement in this uh killing we only

Heard from an official he went as far as saying that Israel’s leadership in the past uh was known for saying that they named militants or terrorists um that who killed Israeli civilians as legitimate uh targets now we understand there were some reports in the Israeli media they had said that um you know

Cabinet members and also members of the knesset the Israeli Parliament were told not to comment there were a few that had actually uh commented and congratulated the security services for a successful operation but we haven’t heard much uh since there was also speculation that this uh should not further inflame the

Already high tensions uh uh with uh Hezbollah um and uh already we heard of course the Israeli leadership as you rightly said they have said they will go after the Hamas leadership not just in Gaza but wherever there are in other countries after the uh Terror attacks on October

7th natonia you mentioned those concerns about a spillover of the Israel Hamas War Beyond Gaza How concerned are Israeli citizens that this incident could lead to an even worse security situation for them well I think there is really uh a lot of concern and all eyes are also now on a

Uh speech by nasan hasala the hollah leader that was planned ahead much earlier than what happened yesterday he will give a speech uh is expected to be uh in the evening uh tonight um Hezbollah had said in a statement uh after the killing that it would not let

This go uh unpunished uh they calling it a serious assault on Lebanon they also had talked uh uh much earlier already about a red line if uh uh leaders of certain groups that are operating also that are present uh in Lebanon uh would be uh assassinated but uh hasah has also

Take has to take into consideration of course the domestic situation we heard the libanese Prime Minister that Lebanon should not be dragged uh into uh a war but there is a lot of concern in Israel because we’ve seen very high tensions at the northern border in Israel with uh uh

South Lebanon uh there have been a lot of cross B firing a lot of rockets and then uh also retaliation uh from both sides so that could spill uh out of control there’s also a lot of talk and concern by Israelis what all this means for potential uh indirect negotiations

Between uh Israel and Hamas about releasing more of the Israeli hostages uh that remain in Gaza so there is a lot of concern uh that there is a further escalation Tanya thank you so much for that that is DW’s correspondent Tanya Kramer in Jerusalem let’s get some analysis here

From Andreas k a Middle East risk analy analyst and associate professor at Kings College London uh welcome could you tell us a little bit about S aruri as a figure what was his role within Hamas and how big of a blow will his death be hi good afternoon I think we we

Should be very careful in terms of uh accrediting one single individual with a hop uh sort of position where they play an outsized role in in a in a wider networked organization he was certainly important symbolically because he obviously uh created the fighting wing of uh of of Hamas certainly must have

Been one way or the other involved and not knowable of what happened on the 7th of October what was going to happen on the 7th of October he was a Le on between Hamas and hisbah and there by also leers on between Hamas and Iran which is an important link uh for the

Israelis um that they’re trying to sever problem though is it’s never just one individual so if you take the individual out here it would be most likely replaced by another individual and it would never had actually this sort of impact I mean none of the assassination campaigns that Israel has conducted

Across the region ever had an a massive impact on the organizations that they were trying to weaken well let’s take a quick look at the consequences of his death you mentioned Hezbollah and it’s of course not just hamas’s reaction to this killing here um the strike killed aruri in a Hezbollah stronghold in

Southern Beirut do you expect that we would see retaliation from Hezbollah to his death yes there will certainly have to be a response because Hezbollah is under pressure they have to show that their deterrence regime is still upheld um they need to show that they mean business at the same time Hezbollah has

Been very cautious in terms of how they respond to Israeli aggression and have also been very careful not to get sucked into that war directly in Gaza so um so far this war has been below the threshold of War so um basically you know there have been a tit we’ve seen

These tit fortat responses every response that hasb has made has been very measured and Israel has been fairly measured as well in terms of responding to his has attacks as well so this one is an escalation it’s an escalation because it’s not a hasah figure that was

Killed but it’s someone who was under the protection of Hezbollah who enjoyed the hospitality of Hezbollah who was killed in deep inside their territory it’s a great violation also of leban sovereignty which Hezbollah will have to respond to the question is just how will Hezbollah respond because Hezbollah for

Many years has kind of and Iran as well have kind of delayed their responses to these sort of attacks which means they do respond that doesn’t necessarily mean they respond immediately the question is how do they respond because I don’t think Hezbollah still you know has the

Appetite for a major escalation it’s the Israelis are playing with fire it seems that some in Israel might have an appetite to bring the war to Hezbollah Hezbollah now will have to find a measured approach to this but I think the response will be one that could come

With delay but will be one that would be far worse than what we’ve seen so far coming from Lebanon as in a strike that will be much deeper inside of Israeli ter teritory it will be one that potentially could be a major terrorist attack within Israel or against Israeli

Soft targets also outside of Israel um but there will have to be a response if if Hezbollah wants to maintain its credibility well thank you so much for joining us on DW news with your expertise that is Andreas at King’s College London many thanks

The killing of a top Hamas official in Beirut is raising fears that the Israel-Gaza war could spread. Saleh al-Arouri, a deputy leader of Hamas’s political bureau, and six others were killed in a strike on an apartment building. Lebanon’s state-run news agency said the attack was carried out by Israel — Israel has neither confirmed nor denied that it was behind the killing. However, military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Israeli forces were in a “very high state of readiness” and prepared for any scenario.

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