More than a thousand people mourn Hamas deputy leader Al-Aruri killed in Beirut
After the prayer, the mourners marched towards the refugee settlement of Shatila, where the dead were to be buried, accompanied by gunshots and shouts of "Allahu Akbar" (God is great). Palestinian flags and those of the radical Islamic Hamas and Islamic Jihad were waved.
Al-Aruri and six other Hamas members were killed on Tuesday in an attack on an office of the Palestinian organization in a southern suburb of Beirut. According to estimates from US government circles, the attack was carried out by Israel.
The assassination of the Hamas deputy chief was a "failed act", one of the mourners told AFP. "The resistance will continue to produce new leaders."
"The enemy believes that by assassinating Saleh al-Aruri it can defeat the resistance and impose its conditions," Hamas' Qatar-based political leader Ismail Haniya said in a speech broadcast to a crowd in Beirut. "But he has failed and will never be able to make Hamas give up its demands, its vision and its strategy," he emphasized.
Following the unprecedented attack by Hamas on 7 October, Israel announced the destruction of the radical Islamic Palestinian organization. Hundreds of Hamas fighters had attacked Israel and, according to Israeli figures, killed around 1140 people and abducted around 250 others as hostages in the Gaza Strip. In response, Israel has been attacking targets in the Gaza Strip in a massive military campaign ever since.
Since the beginning of the war, the pro-Iranian Hezbollah militia, which is allied with Hamas, has also been attacking Israel almost daily from southern Lebanon. The Israeli army is responding to the attacks with increased air strikes on the neighboring country, where several Hamas representatives also live under the protection of Hezbollah.
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Source: www.stern.de
