TELEGRAPH
The funeral of a senior Hamas leader assassinated by Israel is due to take place in Lebanon today amid heightened fears of a regional escalation.
Saleh al-Arouri, the deputy leader of Hamas’s political wing and the founder of its militant operations in the occupied West Bank, will be buried in Beirut after he was among seven killed in a blast in the city’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh on Tuesday.
The 57-year-old is the most senior member of the terror group to have been eliminated since the October 7 attack on southern Israel.
The chief of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service has vowed that the agency would hunt down every Hamas member involved in the October 7 attack on Israel, no matter where they are. Israel has refused to comment on reports it carried out the killing, but the remarks by David Barnea, the service’s current director, appeared to be the strongest indication it was behind the blast.
It comes the day after at least 95 people were killed after a twin bombing at the grave of Qassim Soleimani in Iran, the figurehead of the country’s global terrorist operations.
Iranian officials appeared split over whether to directly blame Israel for the country’s deadliest bombing since the 1979 revolution, which would likely demand a military response from the Islamic Republic.
