Hezbollah plans ‘punishment’ for al-Arouri killing
Hezbollah says its finger “is on the trigger” as the Islamic militant group in Lebanon plots its response to the death of Hamas senior leader Saleh al-Arouri in an explosion in Beirut Tuesday that it blames on Israel.
The “assassination” of Arouri and two other senior Hamas figures among six deaths in the reported drone striker is “a serious assault on Lebanon”, the group said in a post Tuesday night on Telegram:
[It is] a dangerous development in course of war between the enemy and the axis of the resistance… [that] will not go without a response or punishment. The resistance has its finger on the trigger.
Key events
The United States has reached a deal to extend its military presence at a base in Qatar for another 10 years, a source familiar with the matter told the Reuters news agency on Tuesday.
It’s believed to be the Al Udeid airbase, which is located in the desert southwest of Doha and hosts the largest US military facility in the Middle East, the source said, asking Reuters not to be identified. The development was reported first by CNN.
The US Department of Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. The tiny Gulf state has played a key role in mediation talks with Hamas and Israeli officials in relation to the war in Gaza.
US President Joe Biden has regularly spoken with the emir of Qatar since the 7 October attacks on securing the release of hostages held by Hamas and on boosting aid to Gaza.
There has also been criticism of Qatar by some in the US Congress over Hamas’ presence in the country.
Reged Ahmad here picking up the blog from Richard Luscombe
US senator Bernie Sanders has been making comments about US additional funding for Israel. Joan E Greve is in Washington and writes:
Bernie Sanders, the progressive senator of Vermont, issued a statement Tuesday calling on Congress to block additional funding to Israel amid the war in Gaza, where more than 22,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks after Hamas killed 1,200 people in Israel on 7 October.
“While we recognize that Hamas’ barbaric terrorist attack began this war, we must also recognize that Israel’s military response has been grossly disproportionate, immoral and in violation of international law,” Sanders said.
“Enough is enough. Congress must reject that funding. The taxpayers of the United States must no longer be complicit in destroying the lives of innocent men, women, and children in Gaza.
Here’s the rest of Joan E Greve’s report:
Summary of the day…
This is Richard Luscombe in the US, handing over our blog coverage to colleagues in Australia. Thanks for joining me.
It’s 1am on Wednesday in Gaza City, Jerusalem and Beirut. Here are the main developments we’ve been following in the Israel-Hamas war:
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Senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri was killed in an explosion in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, reportedly caused by a targeted Israeli drone strike. Israel has not accepted responsibility, but says “whoever did this… [it was] a surgical strike against the Hamas leadership”.
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Six people were killed in the explosion, reports say, including al-Arouri, a founder of Hamas’s military wing long targeted by Israel, and two leaders of Hamas’s elite military al-Qassam Brigades. Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, condemned a “new Israeli crime” and said the country was filing a complaint to the United Nations security council.
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Israel’s military forces are in a state of “high readiness” following the assassination, a senior spokesman without acknowledging his country’s involvement in the incident. Rear Adm Daniel Hagari told reporters “We are focused and remain focused on fighting against Hamas. We are on high readiness for any scenario”.
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Hezbollah said its finger “is on the trigger” as it promised vengeance for Arouri’s death, and later claimed it had launched a so-far unconfirmed missile attack on Israeli troops. The group said the attack in Beirut was “a serious assault on Lebanon… that will not go without a response or punishment” in a statement posted to Telegram.
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Hamas said it won’t release any more hostages it took during the 7 October attacks on Israel, except under its own terms. The group’s political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, told Reuters he laid out the Hamas position to officials of Egypt and Qatar, countries trying to broker a ceasefire similar to the one in November that saw more than 100 hostages freed. Haniyeh is demanding “a complete cessation of the aggression” by Israel.
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Turkey arrested 34 people on suspicion of spying for Mossad on behalf of Israel. “The Israeli intelligence service is recruiting personnel to be used in acts against Palestinians residing in our country and their families.,” a government official said. Without providing evidence, the official said the suspects were also spreading fake news and disinformation, carrying out robberies and blackmail for Israeli intelligence.
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Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant said military operations in the south of the Gaza Strip around Khan Younis were focused on areas above what he said was a tunnel network where Hamas leaders were believed to be hiding. “We are reaching them all ways. There already is engagement and there are hostages there too sadly,” he told Israeli troops in footage shown on Israeli television, Reuters said.
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The Palestine Red Crescent Society reported “several fatalities and wounded” at its headquarters in Khan Younis as a result of Israeli missile. “The occupation renews its bombardment of the PRCS headquarters in Khan Younis for the second time, resulting in several fatalities and wounded among the 14,000 displaced individuals housed in the PRCS’s premises and the adjacent Al-Amal hospital,” the group said in a statement.
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At least 22,185 Palestinians have been killed and more than 57,000 wounded by Israel’s military action in Gaza, according to updated figures from the health ministry. It says that 207 Palestinians were killed and 338 were wounded in the past 24 hours. The Gaza health ministry is run by Hamas. The figures do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
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Separately, the Israeli military has claimed to have killed about 8,000 fighters in the Gaza Strip during its campaign. Additionally, since 7 October, at least 321 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank by Israeli troops or settlers. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
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Israel Defense Forces have killed four alleged Palestinian militants during a raid in the occupied West Bank town of Azzun, the IDF has said. In addition it said it had arrested seven others. More than 2,550 people have been arrested in the occupied territory since the Israel-Hamas war began.
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Israel will defend its actions in Gaza at the international court of justice in The Hague after South Africa launched a case against the state accusing it of genocide last week, Israeli media has reported. “Israel, a longstanding signatory to the Genocide Convention, will not boycott the proceedings. We will participate and refute the absurd accusation that amounts to blood libel,” national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi told the news site Ynet.
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The first UK maritime shipment of aid for Gaza has arrived in Egypt, carrying almost 90 tonnes of thermal blankets and other essential items. The shipment was delivered from Cyprus by royal fleet auxiliary ship Lyme Bay, and the aid will be distributed within the Gaza Strip by UNRWA.
A United Nations humanitarian official has visited the Al-Amal hospital in Gaza, site of an Israeli missile attack earlier in which five people were reported dead, including a five-day-old baby.
“The world should be absolutely horrified. The world should be absolutely outraged a child was killed here today, four more people were killed here today, in a space that should be safe,” Gemma Connell, head of the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs said in the video posted to X.
“The world should be absolutely horrified. The world should be absolutely outraged. […] There is no safe space in #Gaza.”
🔊 A harrowing message from Gemma Connell, our team leader on the ground, after a hospital in the region was hit during an attack.#NotATarget pic.twitter.com/MfcsVqcJBa
— UN Humanitarian (@UNOCHA) January 2, 2024
“I’m at a hospital that’s a Palestinian Red Crescent Society facility, clearly marked with the red crescent emblem on the roof.
“No child in the world shouldn’t be killed, let alone one sheltering under the emblem of humanitarian organization. This war has to end. There’s no safe space in Gaza and the world should be ashamed.”
Hezbollah says it has acted quickly on its earlier promise to “punish” Israel for the death of senior Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri in Lebanon on Tuesday.
The militant group claimed it had “targeted a group of Israeli soldiers in the vicinity of Marj with missiles”, according to Reuters.
The group gave no other details of the alleged attack, and Israel has not confirmed any attack on its forces.
Here’s a closer look at Saleh al-Arouri, the senior Hamas official killed by a reported Israeli drone strike in Lebanon on Tuesday, written by the Guardian’s international security correspondent Jason Burke:
The killing of Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut is the first strike in a campaign of assassinations overseas promised by Israeli officials for several months.
The target was carefully chosen – one of the most senior Hamas leaders and the organization’s main link to Iran and the Lebanon-based militia Hezbollah. Arouri was also influential in the occupied West Bank, where he was born and where violence has soared in recent months.
Some Israeli officials also believe that the 57-year-old may have known in advance about the plan to launch bloody attacks into Israel before the assault on 7 October, which killed more than 1,100 Israelis, mainly civilians.
Arouri became involved in Islamist activism when a student at Hebron university in the mid-1980s, a time when such ideologies were surging across the Middle East. He joined Hamas soon after its foundation in the immediate aftermath of the first intifada and helped create Hamas’s military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassem brigades.
Jailed by Israel in 1992, Arouri spent almost all the next 18 years in prison. In 2010, he helped negotiate the release by Israel of more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in return for a single kidnapped Israeli soldier.
Read the full story:
A British maritime security firm said on Tuesday that a Malta-flagged container ship reported seeing three explosions in the Red Sea, close to Yemen’s coast, Reuters is reporting.
Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi militants, who control much of the country, have stepped up attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea in protest against Israel’s war in Gaza.
The ship’s crew reported the explosions towards its port quarter, 15 miles (24km) southwest of the Yemen coast. Ambrey, the maritime security company, said the ship’s master was heard over radio appealing for military support.
No damage to the vessel was reported, and its crew are safe, the UK maritime trades operation agency said.
There has been a recent escalation in attacks by Houthi militants on Red Sea shipping, with some operators deciding to re-route vessels around the Cape of Good Hope rather than through the Suez canal.
The United Nations security council might meet to discuss the issue as early as Wednesday, the French ambassador Nicolas de Riviere told reporters Tuesday.
“The situation is bad. There is a repetition of violations and military actions in this area,” he said.
Read more:
Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protestors have gathered in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, to protest Tuesday’s killing of senior Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri in Lebanon.
Here are some images of protests in the city, sent to us over the news wires.
US denounces Israeli ministers’ Gaza settlement proposals
There’s growing friction between the US government and far-right ministers in Israel who have called for the rebuilding of Israeli settlements in Gaza, and for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to relocate to southern Lebanon.
Such proposals, voiced by Israel’s national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, two senior members of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet, are abhorrent, the US state department said in a statement on Tuesday:
This rhetoric is inflammatory and irresponsible. We have been told repeatedly and consistently by the government of Israel, including by the prime minister, that such statements do not reflect the policy of the Israeli government. They should stop immediately.
We have been clear, consistent, and unequivocal, that Gaza is Palestinian land and will remain Palestinian land, with Hamas no longer in control of its future and with no terror groups able to threaten Israel. That is the future we seek, in the interests of Israelis and Palestinians, the surrounding region, and the world.
Hezbollah plans ‘punishment’ for al-Arouri killing
Hezbollah says its finger “is on the trigger” as the Islamic militant group in Lebanon plots its response to the death of Hamas senior leader Saleh al-Arouri in an explosion in Beirut Tuesday that it blames on Israel.
The “assassination” of Arouri and two other senior Hamas figures among six deaths in the reported drone striker is “a serious assault on Lebanon”, the group said in a post Tuesday night on Telegram:
[It is] a dangerous development in course of war between the enemy and the axis of the resistance… [that] will not go without a response or punishment. The resistance has its finger on the trigger.
Israel forces ‘on high readiness’ after al-Arouri death
Israel’s military forces are in a state of “high readiness”, a senior spokesman has said, without acknowledging his country’s involvement in Tuesday’s death of a top Hamas leader.
Rear Adm Daniel Hagari, speaking to reporters on Tuesday night, made no direct mention of the killing of Saleh al-Arouri in a reported Israeli drone strike in Beirut, Lebanon. And Israel has not so far said it was responsible.
But in what could be seen as an allusion to it, and suggestions the episode could heighten the risk of an escalation of the conflict to the wider Middle East, the Associated Press reports that Hagari said:
We are focused and remain focused on fighting against Hamas. We are on high readiness for any scenario.
Al-Arouri’s death comes ahead of a visit to the region by US secretary of state Antony Blinken, even as the administration of president Joe Biden has tried to prevent a spread of the conflict, repeatedly warning Hezbollah and its regional supporter Iran not to escalate the violence, the AP says.
Joanna Walters
Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh has issued a strongly-worded statement via television calling the killing of Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri in Lebanon an assassination.
Hamas blames Israel for the drone strike that killed Arouri in Beirut.
In the speech, Haniyeh said:
The assassination of the leader Al-Arouri and his brothers by the occupation is a fully-fledged terrorist act, a violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty, and an expansion of its aggression. The Nazi occupation bears responsibility for this aggression and will not succeed in breaking the will of resilience and the steadfast resistance of our people and its valiant resistance.”
Hamas said the leaders were mourned, Reuters has reported.
Joanna Walters
It appears that the strike within Lebanon that killed Hamas senior official Saleh al-Arouri also killed two leaders from the armed wing of Hamas, Samir Findi Abu Amer and Azzam al-Aqraa Abu Ammar, Reuters reports, citing a Hamas TV channel.
The weapons strike by drone, so far attributed by Hamas to Israel, reportedly killed six people in total.
Reuters now reports that two of those in addition to Arouri were leaders of Hamas’ armed wing Al Qassam brigades, citing Hamas Al Aqsa TV channel via Telegram.
My colleague Peter Beaumont says in this previous explainer about Hamas, an entity which is “many things”, that the Qassam brigades have always supported the use of terrorism tactics against Israel.