Watan-Questions have arisen regarding the Lebanese government’s stance on the Israeli occupation’s assassination of Saleh Al-Arouri, the head of the political bureau of Hamas. The attack occurred with a strike on the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, and concerns Hezbollah’s actions in the aftermath of this operation.
According to Israeli sources, including the Hebrew website “Walla” and Channel 13, the Israeli occupation anticipates a response from Lebanon to the operation. However, the stance of the Lebanese government remains mysterious and not explicitly stated regarding the upcoming steps.
Hezbollah has a history of issuing slogans in response to such operations, although the actual responses tend not to escalate to the level of a catastrophe, as confirmed by several observers.
On Tuesday, Salah Al-Arouri, a senior Hamas official, was martyred in an Israeli strike targeting a Hamas facility in the southern suburbs of Beirut. The strike resulted in his assassination along with six other members of the movement.
What is the Lebanese government’s stance on the assassination of Al-Arouri?
The Israeli occupation forces bombed the Lebanese capital, Beirut, for the first time since 2006, targeting a Hamas office in the southern suburb. This raised questions about the steps the Lebanese government will take in response.
Media reports quoted Lebanese Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati as saying that the explosion in the southern suburb of Beirut is an “Israeli crime aimed at bringing Lebanon into a new phase.” He requested the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to urgently file a complaint with the United Nations Security Council regarding the operation.
According to Reuters, questions were directed to the Israeli army regarding the incident, but they responded that they “do not comment on reports from foreign media,” according to Anadolu Agency.
📸أمين عام #حزب_الله #حسن_نصرالله قبل 4 أشهر .. فهل ستُفتح جبهة جنوب #لبنان على معركة أوسع بعد اغتيال الشيخ #صالح_العاروري في #الضاحية الجنوبية لـِ #بيروت؟! pic.twitter.com/kMa7AUUIyP
— وطن. يغرد خارج السرب (@watanserb_news) January 2, 2024
The situation on the Lebanese front is expected to change
According to what Al-Jazeera reported from its bureau chief in Beirut, Mazen Ibrahim, the assassination of Al-Arouri is expected to lead to a change in the situation on the Lebanese front with Israel.
Ibrahim pointed out that Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary-General of the Lebanese Hezbollah party, had previously warned in a speech that any targeting of a resistance official, whether Lebanese or Palestinian, would completely change the equation in southern Lebanon.
The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation reiterated discussions about “the readiness of the Israeli occupation to respond to Lebanon in the aftermath of the dramatic assassination tonight, on all fronts.” Therefore, the Israeli mini-cabinet meeting for security and political affairs, the “Cabinet,” scheduled for the day after the Gaza war, was canceled.
Hezbollah’s official position
After the assassination incident, it was not surprising that the party issued a statement confirming that the killing of Saleh Al-Arouri in an Israeli strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut is a serious development in the confrontation with Israel and will not go without consequences.
من بيان #حزب_الله حول استشهاد القائد الشيخ #صالح_العاروري:
إنّنا نعتبر جريمة اغتيال الشيخ صالح العاروري ورفاقه الشهداء في قلب #الضاحية_الجنوبية ل #بيروت اعتداءً خطيرًا على لبنان وشعبه وأمنه وسيادته ومقاومته وما فيه من رسائل سياسية وأمنية بالغة الرمزية والدلالات وتطورًا خطيرًا في… pic.twitter.com/DfGoJupeUn— jamal cheaib (@JamalCheaib) January 2, 2024
The party has often emphasized its slogans more than its actions on the ground, with its involvement in supporting Gaza being limited to missile attacks that, according to activists, did not compare to even a small fraction of the magnitude of the crimes and brutal wars in the Gaza Strip.
In an attempt to leverage the event to support the Iranian narrative, which Hamas denied in its entirety and detailed, stating that the Al-Aqsa Brigades were not linked to the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, Hezbollah sought to connect Al-Arouri’s assassination to the death of Razi Mousavi in an Israeli airstrike in Syria.
📸الشهيد #صالح_العاروري: “دماؤنا أرواحنا ليست أغلى ولا أعزّ من أيّ شيء .. ولا يجوز لأم شهيد أن تشعر أن دماء القائد أعز من دماء ابنها .. كلنا سواسية”. pic.twitter.com/jydGEZMJVf
— وطن. يغرد خارج السرب (@watanserb_news) January 2, 2024
The Qassam Brigades (the military wing of Hamas) are fighting the occupation on their own
And they are confronting the Israeli occupation on their own, facing local Palestinian factions entirely in a significant battle where they have managed to inflict substantial losses. Meanwhile, the responses from the so-called Resistance Alliance, according to activists, have been more symbolic and demonstrative than impactful on the main front.
A member of the political bureau of Hamas, Izzat al-Rishq, mentioned in a statement that “the cowardly assassination operations carried out by Israel against the leaders and symbols of our Palestinian people inside and outside Palestine will not succeed in breaking the will and resilience of our people, or in undermining the continuation of their courageous resistance.”
It is worth noting that Al-Arouri, along with other leaders of the Hamas movement, resides in Lebanon, and his house in the West Bank village of Aarura was destroyed by the Israeli army in October.