Israel-Hamas war: Strike in Beirut kills Hamas deputy leader

The US State Department has urged two far-right Israeli lawmakers to "stop immediately" after they advocated for the resettlement of Palestinians outside of the Gaza Strip.

On Sunday, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called on Palestinian residents of Gaza to leave the territory while National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir also said the fighting "presented an "opportunity to concentrate on encouraging the migration of the residents of Gaza."

"This rhetoric is inflammatory and irresponsible," the State Department said in a statement on Tuesday.

"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."

"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," the US State Department added.

The Al-Amal hospital in southern Gaza was hit by strikes on Tuesday, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

The hospital in Khan Younis is run by the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS). Tedros said the "unconscionable" strikes killed five civilians and severely damaged a Red Crescent training center.

"The attacks, according to the PRCS, killed at least five civilians, including a 5-day old infant," Tedros said.

"14,000 people were sheltering at the hospital in the besieged southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. Many of them have now left, and those remaining are extremely fearful for their safety and planning to leave a place they had turned to for refuge and protection."

He added: "Hospitals, ambulances, health workers, and people seeking care must be protected, at all times, under international humanitarian law."

The WHO chief once again reiterated calls for an immediate cease-fire "including urgent action to ensure the accelerated and unimpeded flow of food, medical supplies, water and other essential items to millions of civilians forced to live in unspeakable conditions of hunger, disease spread, and lack of hygiene and sanitation."

Hans-Jakob Schindler, senior director at the Counterterrorism Project NGO, spoke to DW about Saleh Arouri, a Hamas deputy leader who was killed in Lebanese capital Beirut.

Schindler said that Arouri was there "right from the beginning," having been radicalized in the 1980s, while studying in the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank. He went on to co-found Hamas' military wing, the Qassam Brigades in 1988 and form a "personal relationship" with Yahya Sinwa, who leads Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Arouri was arrested by Israel multiple times and then released in 2010, then moved to Syria. After leaving Syria in 2012, he went to Turkey, then to Qatar in 2015, and then to Lebanon in 2017.

The Hamas official had served as the "quasi Hamas ambassador to Hezbollah and one of the key liaison individuals of Hamas to … Iran" while living in Lebanon, Schindler told DW.

Schindler said the Arouri's death weakens Hamas "to a certain extent," but does not "hamper the organization's ability to fight Israel [in Gaza]."

He said that Israel is the "most likely" actor to have killed Arouri, despite the fact that they did not claim responsibility for the attack. "As in the past… [Israel is] not going to admit to extrajudicial killings outside of the Palestinian territories.

Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, condemned the strike in southern Beirut that killed several people, including the senior Hamas official Saleh Arouri.

His office said that this "new Israeli crime" was intended "to draw Lebanon into a new phase of confrontations" with Israel.

The Israeli military or government have not commented on the incident. However, Mark Regev, an advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told US broadcaster MSNBC that Israel had not taken responsibility for the attack.

"Whoever did it, it must be clear that this was not an attack on the Lebanese state," he said.

"Whoever did this, did a surgical strike against the Hamas leadership."

A Hamas politburo official, Izzat al-Sharq, called the strike a "cowardly assassination."

The explosion in the Lebanese capital, which state TV attributed to an Israeli drone, reportedly killed top Hamas official Saleh Arouri. The reports were collaborated by a TV station belonging to Hezbollah.

Arouri was considered number two in the Hamas hierarchy and was one of the founders of the group's military wing. He had led their organization in the West Bank.

Israel has not yet commented on the strike, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had already threatened to kill him before the war broke out in Gaza.

Both Hamas and Hezbollah are backed by Iran and are considered terror organizations by Israel, the US and Germany among others.

Lebanese media said on Tuesday that an Israeli drone had hit an office belonging to the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the capital Beirut.

An explosion was reported in a southern suburb of Beirut that is believed to be a stronghold of the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

Lebanese state media reported that four people were killed in the attack.

Hezbollah and Israeli forces have exchanged rocket fire numerous times since October 7, sparking fears that Israeli military operations in Gaza could spread across the region. However, clashes have so far been largely limited to exchanges of fire over their shared border.

Turkish authorities conducted raids in Istanbul and seven other provinces, arresting 33 people suspected of spying for Israel, Turkey's Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced.

Those arrested are accused of having had links with Israel's Mossad security service. They were recruited to spy on Palestinians residing in Turkey, as well as Israeli activists opposed to the Israeli government, Turkey's Anadolu News Agency reported. According to the report, the suspects were plotting activities that included "reconnaissance" as well as "pursuing, assaulting and kidnapping" foreigners living in Turkey.

Authorities were still searching for 13 other suspects. The Reuters news agency cited a senior Turkish official as saying the Israeli intelligence used job postings on social media to establish contact. He also said they used encrypted messaging platforms to communicate with their alleged agents.

It was not immediately clear if the suspects were Israeli nationals or Turkish citizens. 

The head of Israel's domestic security agency, Shin Bet, had earlier suggested the organization was prepared to destroy the militant, Islamist group Hamas "in every place," including in Lebanon, Turkey and Qatar. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been outspokenly critical of Israel's bombardment of Gaza, warned of "serious consequences" to such actions.

Hamas, the group behind the bloody October 7 attacks on Israel which killed nearly 1,200, is designated as a terrorist organization in the US, Israel, Germany and the European Union.

Turkey, however, does not consider the group a terrorist organization. Early on in the war, Erdogan described it as a "liberation group."

Israel will contest South African allegations of genocide at the United Nations' top court, Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy said.

South Africa last week filed an application at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and asking the court to order Israel to halt its attacks — the first such challenge made at the court over the current war. 

"The State of Israel will appear before the International Court of Justice at The Hague to dispel South Africa's absurd blood libel," Levy said in an online briefing.

"We assure South Africa's leaders, history will judge you, and it will judge you without mercy," he added. 

The death toll in Gaza surpassed 22,000 on Tuesday, according to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip's Health Ministry.

The ministry said 22,185 Palestinians have been killed since the conflict began on October 7. 

Its count does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Some 207 Palestinians were killed and 338 were wounded in the last 24 hours, the ministry added. 

The war began after Hamas militants broke through Israeli security defenses on October 7 and killed some 1,200 people. Israel subsequently vowed to crush the militant group's governing and military capabilities. Some 85% of Gaza's 2.3 million residents have been displaced as a result of the war.

The Israeli military said Tuesday that its forces were operating in Gaza's second-largest city, Khan Younis, after announcing plans to pull back some troops from the territory.

Israel said on Tuesday that its troops had killed dozens of militants in the north of the Gaza Strip in the past day, while its aircraft and tanks stepped up strikes in the south of the Palestinian enclave. 

Residents also reported heavy fighting and shellfire in central areas around the Al-Bureij refugee camp. 

In its daily briefing, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) military said its troops had targeted militants in Gaza City and on the Mediterranean coast. 

"In Jabaliya area, troops killed dozens of terrorists, among them those who attempted to plant explosive devices, others who operated drones and those who were armed identified driving toward the forces," the military said.

It said troops also seized weapons in Khan Younis in the south and in a United Nations school in Al-Bureij. 

Syrian state news agency SANA on Tuesday cited a military statement as saying that an Israeli airstrike overnight, coming from the direction of the Golan Heights, caused material damage to positions on the outskirts of Damascus. 

There was no immediate comment from Israeli officials. 

Israeli strikes on what it says are Iranian-backed militia targets in Syria have been relatively commonplace for some time and their scale has intensified amid the conflict in Gaza.

It is not unusual for Israel not to comment on the individual strikes.

Last week, what Iran described as an Israeli airstrike in Syria killed senior Iranian military commander Seyed Razi Mousavi.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it killed four armed Palestinians in an operation in the occupied  West Bank. 

The army said that soldiers had been in the town of Qalqilya on an "anti-terrorist operation" when soldiers came under fire. 

"Terrorists shot and threw explosive devices at our troops," it said on social media, saying the Palestinians were killed in the ensuing firefight. The IDF said its troops seized three submachine guns and a handgun.

The Palestinian Health Ministry also reported four deaths in the town, of men aged 18 to 26, and said six others were injured. 

Although the bulk of the fighting has been confined to Gaza, violence in the West Bank has stepped up since Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel. 

According to Palestinian authorities, 310 people have been killed in the West Bank since October 7. 

msh/nm (Reuters, AP, AFP)