On Tuesday night, Deputy Hamas Chief Saleh al-Arouri was killed in an Israeli drone hit on Beirut’s southern suburbs of Dahiyeh, a bastion of the allied Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah, indicating that the confrontation between Hamas and Israel may be spreading to encompass more of the region.

In response to the Reuters inquiry, the Israeli military said it does not reply to international media reporting.

According to Lebanon’s official news agency, the drone hit a Hamas office. According to two security sources, the strike targeted a meeting between Hamas leaders and Lebanon’s Sunni Islamist Jama’a Islamiya movement, killing four Palestinians and three Lebanese.

This is the first targeted killing of a Hamas official outside of Palestinian territory since the Palestinian group’s deadly assault on Israeli land on October 7.

According to Mark Regev, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel has not claimed credit for the strike, but “whoever did it, it must be clear: that this was not an attack on the Lebanese state.”

“Whoever did this carried out a surgical strike against Hamas leadership,” Regev stated in the interview.

Arouri was a founding member of Hamas’ military arm, the Qassam Brigades, and a member of its politburo. He had just visited Lebanon and Qatar, which have mediated discussions between Hamas and Israel, including on captives taken by Hamas in their October 7 attack. The United States, which considers Hamas to be a terrorist organization, offered $5 million for information on Arouri last year.

Hamas verified Arouri’s death, as well as the deaths of Qassam Brigade officers Samir Findi Abu Amer and Azzam Al-Aqraa Abu Ammar.

On Tuesday, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh called Arouri’s death a “terrorist act,” a breach of Lebanon’s sovereignty, and an extension of Israel’s hatred toward Palestinians.

In a statement, Islamic Jihad pledged vengeance, adding, “This crime will not go unpunished, and the resistance will continue until the occupation is removed.”

The assassination, according to Iran, will fuel the struggle against Israel, while Yemen’s Houthi movement offered condolences. Hundreds came to the streets in Ramallah, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, to demand reprisal, chanting “Revenge, revenge, Qassam.”

THE ‘NEW CRIME’

A Reuters witness in Dahiyeh reported seeing firefighters and paramedics gathering around a multi-story structure with a big hole in the third floor. On the roadway, limbs and other parts of flesh could be seen.

Najib Mikati, Lebanon’s temporary prime minister, termed the strike a “new Israeli crime” and an effort to drag Lebanon into war. According to his office, he requested that Lebanon’s foreign minister submit a protest to the United Nations Security Council.

Hezbollah warned in a written statement that the strike “will not go without a response or punishment” and that the resistance has “its finger on the trigger.” It declared an attack on Israeli soldiers across the border but did not say if it was in reaction to Arouri’s death.

On Wednesday, Hezbollah president Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah will deliver a speech commemorating the fourth anniversary of the death of Iranian Quds Force chief Qassem Suleimani in a US drone strike on Baghdad.

In an August broadcast speech, Nasrallah warned Israel against carrying out any killings on Lebanese territory, threatening a “severe reaction.”

Hezbollah is in charge of security in Dahiyeh’s southern suburbs. Two Israeli drones crashed in the district in 2019.

Since Hamas carried out the October 7 strike, Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging near-daily fire. However, the conflict has primarily been contained in the border region between Lebanon and Israel.

Since then, Israeli airstrikes and shelling have killed over 100 Hezbollah members and almost two dozen civilians, including children, the elderly, and numerous journalists.

On October 7, Israel claims 1,200 people were killed, nd 240 were kidnapped. Israel’s response has been a nearly three-month-long war in Hamas-ruled Gaza, where Palestinian health officials claim the dedeatholl has topped 22,000 people.