Israeli drone kills deputy Hamas chief in Beirut, raising spillover concerns

Hamas's deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri was killed on Tuesday night in an Israeli drone strike on a Hamas office in the southern suburb of the Lebanese capital of Beirut, signaling the conflict between Hamas and Israel could be expanding to engulf more of the region.

The strike marks the first targeted assassination of a Hamas official outside Palestinian territories since the Palestinian group's deadly assault on Israeli territory on October 7.

A Hamas source told Xinhua that several aides of al-Arouri, deputy head of the Hamas politburo, were also killed in the Israeli attack.

In a statement, Hamas confirmed that seven of its members were slain in the Israeli attack, slamming it as a "barbaric and heinous" terrorist act, a violation of Lebanon's sovereignty, and an expansion of Israeli aggression against Palestine and its people.

Hamas also announced a freeze on ceasefire negotiations with Israel after the attack.

Lebanese armed group Hezbollah said the attack was a serious assault on the Lebanese people, security, and sovereignty.

"This crime will never pass without response and punishment," it said in a statement, warning that the attack signaled "a dangerous development" in the current Israel-Hamas conflict.

Mark Regev, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told MSNBC that Israel had not taken responsibility for this attack, but "whoever did it, it must be clear: That this was not an attack on the Lebanese state."

"Whoever did this did a surgical strike against the Hamas leadership," Regev said in the interview.

Israeli media, citing senior officials, said that the country was on high alert against "a significant retaliation" by Hamas or its Iranian-backed ally, Hezbollah, including the launching of precision weapons at Israeli cities.

'New crime'

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati strongly condemned the Israeli attack.

"The explosion is a new Israeli crime aimed at inevitably dragging Lebanon into a new phase of confrontation, following the daily ongoing assaults in the south, resulting in a significant number of martyrs and wounded individuals," Mikati said in a statement.

His office said he asked Lebanon's foreign minister to file a complaint to the United Nations Security Council.

Iran on Tuesday also condemned Israel's "despicable" move of assassinating al-Arouri, as well as two commanders of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the Hamas armed wing, in the drone strike.

Following the strike, French President Emmanuel Macron called on Israel to avoid escalation, "particularly in Lebanon," the Elysee Palace said Tuesday.

Macron, who spoke by telephone with the Israeli minister and war cabinet member Benny Gantz, said "it is essential to avoid any escalatory attitude, particularly in Lebanon" and that France would continue to pass on these messages to all players directly or indirectly involved in the area," the presidency said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sees the assassination of the senior Hamas leader as a worrying development, said a UN spokesperson on Tuesday.

"Obviously, the developments are extremely worrying. And I think this just really highlights what the secretary-general had just said about the dangers of the spillover of this (Israeli-Palestinian) conflict in the wider region," said Florencia Soto Nino, associate spokesperson for Guterres.

"The secretary-general urges all parties to exercise maximum restraint and take urgent steps to deescalate tensions in the region," she said.

(With input from agencies)