Israeli drone strike kills four Hamas members in the terror group’s Beirut office – including the founder of their military wing, whom Netanyahu had vowed to kill

An Israeli drone strike on Hamas’s offices in Lebanon has killed four members of the terror group, including Saleh al-Arouri, the armed wing’s deputy leader and founder, Hamas and Hezbollah officials announced.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had threatened to kill al-Arouri, who headed the West Bank organization, before Hamas launched its bloody attack on October 7. Israeli officials vowed tonight that all Hamas leaders are “doomed to death” but declined to comment on whether Israel carried out the attack on Beirut.

Hamas condemned the killing as a “cowardly murder” by Israel and stated that such attacks “will not succeed in breaking the will and steadfastness of our people, or undermining the continuation of their brave resistance.”

Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported that the attack was carried out by an Israeli drone, killing four people and wounding several others. The building believed to house Hamas’s offices is in Dahiyeh, an area in Beirut’s southern suburbs that is also a stronghold of the Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah previously vowed to retaliate against any Israeli attack on Palestinian officials in Lebanon.

Video footage of the aftermath of the strike, which took place at 5.45pm local time (3.45pm UK time) and reportedly attacked both the building and a nearby car, shows a large fire on a nearby street, which is covered in dust and debris . Sirens can be heard and several cars can be seen with their windows smashed. Parents were seen clutching their children as they tried to navigate the devastated suburb.

An Israeli drone strike on Hamas’s office in Beirut, Lebanon, has killed four people, including the terror group’s deputy political leader.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had threatened to kill al-Arouri (pictured), who led the West Bank organization

The office was located in Dahiyeh, an area in Beirut’s southern suburbs and a stronghold of the Iran-backed Hezbollah.

After the drone strike, a huge fire was seen on the street

al-Arouri, 57, was deputy head of Hamas’s political bureau and considered the de facto leader of the organization’s military wing

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a press conference in November that he had “ordered the Mossad to act against the heads of Hamas wherever they are” following the terror group’s Oct. 7 raid that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians. were killed.

al-Arouri, 57, was deputy head of Hamas’s political bureau and was considered the de facto leader of the organization’s military wing.

He is believed to have planned and aided the kidnapping and subsequent murder of three Israeli teenagers, Gil-ad Shaar, Eyal Yifrach and Naftali Fraenkel, in 2014, along with several other attacks.

The political leader served several stints behind bars in Israel and was released in March 2010 as part of efforts to broker a broader prisoner swap in exchange for Gilad Shalit, an IDF corporal kidnapped by Hamas in 2006.

al-Arouri was later involved in a deal that freed more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the corporal.

Lebanese media reported that according to Islamic Jihad sources, the movement’s secretary general, Ziyad al-Nakhala, was not injured in the strike.

The Beirut explosion followed more than two months of intense firefight between Israeli forces and Hezbollah members along Lebanon’s southern border.

Since fighting began the day after Black Saturday, the conflict has been concentrated several kilometers from the border, but on several occasions the Israeli air force struck Hezbollah targets deeper into Lebanon.

Earlier in the day, Hezbollah said its fighters carried out several attacks along the Lebanon-Israel border, targeting Israeli military posts.

The explosion occurred during more than two months of intense firefight between Israeli forces and Hezbollah members along Lebanon’s southern border.

People search for survivors after a massive explosion in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon

Clashes at the border between Israel and Lebanon have already displaced tens of thousands of people

Clashes at the Israel-Lebanon border have already displaced tens of thousands of people, despite Israel’s earlier claims that it did not want to go to war with its neighbor.

But last month, Benny Gantz, a senior member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet, said the situation on Israel’s border with Lebanon “must change,” signaling an escalation with Hezbollah.

In November, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, referring to Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, said: “When you hear that we attacked Beirut, you will understand that Nasrallah crossed that line.”