Anticipation grips Lebanon and the region following the Israeli assassination of Saleh Al-Arouri, the Deputy Head of the Political Bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), along with two commanders from the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the movement, and four other Hamas activists, in an airstrike targeting South Beirut.
Analysts believe the assassination of Hamas leaders on Lebanese soil, coinciding with the ongoing war on Gaza and clashes in Southern Lebanon, represents an unprecedented escalation, signaling an imminent major confrontation that may spread across the entire region between the Axis of Resistance and Israel.
In an interview with Anadolu Agency, Lebanese political analyst Qassem Qassir stated that the assassination of Al-Arouri is a significant and very dangerous operation, aimed at pushing the region into a major confrontation. He added that there is currently no information about the nature of the response to the assassination, but he anticipated an escalation on all fronts.
Suleiman Bsharat, director of "Yabous for Studies," said the assassination puts the conflict at a crossroads. The first path points to the expansion and extension of the conflict to include all arenas, widening the scope of confrontation, while the second implies that this assassination will have a political price for Israel from Hezbollah and the resistance in Gaza.
Following the assassination, Hezbollah issued a statement mourning Al-Arouri and his comrades, vowing that this crime "will never go unpunished and unanswered." The party considered the assassination a serious attack on Lebanon and its people, and a significant escalation in the war between Israel and the Axis of Resistance.
Late on Tuesday evening, Hezbollah fired three anti-tank missiles at Upper Galilee in northern Israel, stating in a press release that their fighters targeted a group of Israeli soldiers near the Majdal site with appropriate weapons, causing casualties and injuries among their ranks.
Targeting the Lebanese Interior
Political analyst Tony Boulos said the assassination of Al-Arouri is the most violent targeting inside Lebanese territory since the 2006 war, indicating that Israel has abandoned the so-called rules of engagement and has no red lines regarding confronting Iran in the region, foreshadowing larger targets.
He stressed that the targeting of Al-Arouri in the southern suburbs of Beirut puts Hezbollah at a "very dangerous" crossroads, as it is compelled to respond to save face. However, there is a dilemma that Iran has not yet given the green light, given that Iran has not yet responded to the killing of a commander from the Revolutionary Guard, according to Boulos.
On August 28, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah warned that "any assassination on Lebanese soil, whether it targets Lebanese, Palestinian, Syrian, Iranian, or others, will have a strong reaction, and we will not allow Lebanon to become a battleground for assassinations."
The assassination in Beirut comes at a time when the southern borders of Lebanon have been facing daily clashes and shelling between Hezbollah and the Israeli army since October 8, resulting in dozens of casualties on both sides of the border.
The prominent Hamas leader spent over 18 years in Israeli prisons and was deported from Palestine when he was released for the last time in 2010. Thereafter, he became a member of the Hamas Political Bureau and later the Deputy Head of its Political Bureau in October 2017, responsible for Hamas in the West Bank.
Al-Arouri is considered one of the founders of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, where he began establishing the first core of the military apparatus of the movement in the West Bank between 1991 and 1992.
