Three senior Hamas officials were identified among the dead in an alleged Israeli strike Tuesday in Lebanon that killed five persons.
Hamas acknowledged through Al Aqsa TV, their media affiliate channel, that Samir Findi Abu Amer and Azzam Al-Aqraa Abu Ammar, two brigade commanders, were killed in the alleged attack, Reuters reported. (RELATED: Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett Publishes Classified Information On Iran Attack In Wall Street Journal)
The alleged strike on an apartment in Beirut also took out Saleh al-Arouri, the deputy political leader of Hamas, The Times of Israel reported. Al-Arouri was a founding member of the West Bank armed wing of Hamas and a financier of the group, according to the Counter Extremism Project. Al-Arouri was also designated as a terrorist by the United States and had a bounty of $5 million issued in 2018 for information leading to his capture, the Project added.
Live update: Senior Hamas military officials Samir Findi, Azzam Al-Aqraa identified among dead along with Arouri https://t.co/sXzEXvdKxi . Click to read ⬇️
— TOI ALERTS (@TOIAlerts) January 2, 2024
Al-Arouri also acted as a spokesman for the terrorist organization. He reportedly denied on Oct. 12 that Hamas killed any civilians during its Oct. 7 invasion of southern Israel and blamed those deaths on the citizens of Gaza. Hamas’ invasion was responsible for the deaths of 1200 people, the vast majority of them civilians. Al-Arouri was reported to be one of the planners of the Oct. 7 operation, Hamas said, Axios reported.
Israel has not formally claimed responsibility for the alleged strike. “Obviously in Lebanon, there are many Hezbollah targets, but whoever did this strike was very surgical and went for a Hamas target because Israel is at war … Whoever did this has a gripe with Hamas,” Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said, The Times of Israel reported. “Whoever did this, it’s not an attack on the Lebanese state. It’s not an attack on the Hezbollah terrorist organization. Whoever did this, it’s an attack on Hamas. That’s very clear.”