ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR LATEST

 

HAMAS DEPUTY LEADER SALEH AL-AROURI KILLED

IMPLICATIONS AND REACTIONS

Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri is reportedly among the dead in an attack on Hamas office in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon.

Hamas' Al Aqsa Radio and Lebanon's pro-Iranian Mayadeen TV confirmed word from security sources that Arouri, a member of the Palestinian Islamist movement's politburo based abroad and a co-founder of Hamas' military wing, the Qassam Brigades, had been killed when a drone struck a Hamas office in south Beirut.

In all, the drone attack killed six people in the city's southern suburb of Daliyeh, the Lebanese state news agency reported earlier, underlining the risk of the Israel-Hamas war spreading well beyond the Gaza Strip.

The war was triggered by a shock cross-border Hamas assault on Israeli towns on Oct. 7 that Israel says killed 1,200 people with some 240 hostages spirited back to Gaza. It was the bloodiest single day in the Jewish state's 75-year history.

Almost 23,000 people, mostly Palestinians, have been killed since the unprecedented Hamas attacks.

Israel has stated from the outset that its objective is to eliminate Hamas’s military and governing capabilities. To this end, it has continued the aerial bombardment and ground invasion of the Gaza Strip almost without pause, since October 7.

As at the end of 2023, the Israeli offensive showed no signs of any let-up and the death toll is certain to rise on both sides as fighting continues.

Political attempts at peace have failed.

 Mark Regev, an adviser to the Israelii prime minister, said in an interview with MSNBC TV that Israel "has not taken responsibility for this attack. But whoever did it, it must be clear, this was not an attack on the Lebanese state. Whoever did this did a surgical strike against the Hamas leadership"

Hamas paramount leader Haniyeh says it has responded to an Egyptian-Qatari ceasefire proposal, reiterating that Hamas conditions entail 'complete cessation' of Israel's offensive in exchange for further releases of hostages

Lebanon's heavily armed Hezbollah group, a Hamas ally, has been exchanging near-daily fire with Israel across Lebanon's southern border since the Gaza war erupted in early October.

Lebanon's caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati condemned the drone blast as a "new Israeli crime" and said it was an attempt to pull Lebanon into the war.

Israel had accused Arouri of supervising and ordering Hamas attacks in the Israel-occupied West Bank in support of militants fighting Israel's devastating air and ground offensive in Gaza.

"I am waiting for martyrdom (death) and I think I have lived too long," Arouri had said in August 2023, alluding to Israeli threats to eliminate Hamas leaders whether in Gaza or abroad.

Hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets of Ramallah in the West Bank to condemn Arouri's killing, chanting, "Revenge, revenge, Qassam!"

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said operations around Khan Younis, southern Gaza's main city, concentrated on areas above the tunnel network where Hamas leaders were believed to be hiding.

"We are reaching them all ways. There already is engagement and there are (Israeli) hostages there too, sadly," he told troops in Gaza in footage shown on Israeli television.

This will continue as high-intensity efforts in the heart of Khan Younis," he said.

Civilian casualties have mounted in south Gaza as the brunt of Israel's offensive has shifted there from the north. Israel says it tries to avoid harm to civilians but blames Hamas for embedding fighters among them, an accusation the militant group denies.

The United States, Israel's main supporter, has been urging it to rein in its air and ground blitz, which has demolished vast tracts of densely populated Gaza, in favour of more targeted strikes focusing on Hamas leaders.

Israel has announced plans to pull back some troops, hinting at a new phase in the war amid a rising global outcry over the plight of Gaza civilians, although also warned its offensive has many months to run.

Shortly before Arouri's killing, Hamas' paramount leader Ismail Haniyeh, who is also based outside Gaza, said the movement had delivered its response to an Egyptian-Qatari ceasefire proposal.

He reiterated that Hamas' conditions entailed "a complete cessation" of Israel's offensive in exchange for further releases of hostages.

Gaza residents said Israeli warplanes and tanks stepped up bombardments of eastern and northern districts of Khan Younis, where tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought refuge after being forced to flee their homes elsewhere.

In separate statements, Hamas and its Islamic Jihad allies said they fired mortar bombs and anti-tank rockets at Israeli ground forces in Khan Younis and were preventing them advancing to its western area. Israel made no comment on these reports.

In the Gaza Strip's north, Gallant said, Israel had destroyed 12 Hamas regiments and only a few thousand militants remained out of 15,000-18,000 that had been based in the area. Others had fled to the south, he said.

"The significance, tactically, operationally, is that in this (northern) area there will be attacks, entering and manoeuvring, special operations," said Gallant. "This is to exhaust the enemy, kill it and control the territory."

Israel believes 129 hostages remain in Gaza after some were released during a brief truce in late November and others were killed during air strikes and rescue or escape attempts.

Israel has vowed not to cease fighting until it has wiped out Hamas but it is unclear what it plans to do with the enclave should it succeed, and where that leaves the prospect of an independent Palestinian state.

 How long and how many deaths more it will take to reach an end to the Israel-Hamas war and what the outcome will be is still in the realm of conjecture.

One thing is certain however; the loser in the war is HUMANITY.