A drone strike on the southern Beirut neighbourhood of Dahiyeh this week killed several Hamas leaders including Saleh al-Arouri, the deputy leader of the group’s political wing and founder of the military wing, Qassam Brigades. The move represents a major regional escalation in Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed more than 22,000 people there so far. But this was not the first time that Israel has carried out an assassination within Lebanon.
Al-Arouri had been living in exile in Lebanon since 2015. Israel has not taken responsibility for the killings, but it is considered highly likely that Tel Aviv ordered the assassination.
