Brazen attack: Israel ’kills’ Hamas chief ​

One of the most senior members of Hamas has been killed in an explosion in the Lebanese capital of Beirut.

Lebanese state media has said six people were killed during an Israeli drone strike on a Hamas office in the city’s southern suburbs. The area, Dahiyeh, is known as a stronghold of Hamas’ Iranian backed allay Hezbollah

Israel has not confirmed its involvement.

The suspected strike comes as Israel battles Hamas militants in teh Gaza Strip.
 

In the current conflict, Israel had so far refrained from hitting Beirut. Skirmishes between Israeli forces and Hezbollah had mostly occurred in border areas.

An attack on Beirut itself is an escalation of the conflict and will lead to fears the now three month old war could widen in teh region.

Hamas has said that its politburo deputy head Saleh al-Arouri was killed. The BBC has reported that he was heavily involved in Hamas, military operations.
 

Al-Aruri was killed in a “treacherous Zionist strike”, Hamas said on its official channel.
A high-level security official in Beirut told AFP that he was killed in the Israeli strike along with his bodyguards.

On Tuesday, the Israeli army said soldiers had killed “dozens of terrorists”, including some carrying explosives, raided a weapons storage compound in the southern city of Khan Yunis and discovered long-range rocket launchers and tunnels.

Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry said 70 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in the previous 24 hours during Israeli raids.

In the southern city of Khan Yunis, Israel twice struck the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) headquarters, PRCS said, resulting in “five casualties and three injuries” among displaced people who had sought refuge there and at a nearby hospital.

The health ministry in Gaza said four people were killed including an infant. “They told us to go to the south that is safe, but they are liars,” shouted Fathi al-Af, pointing to his daughter on a stretcher on the floor of Nasser Hospital after the strike. “The entire Gaza Strip is not safe.” United Nations agencies have voiced alarm over Gaza’s spiralling humanitarian crisis that has left 2.4 million people under siege and bombardment, most of them displaced and crowded into shelters and tents.

The World Health Organisation has warned of the risk of famine, and disease.