Hezbollah, an organization supported by Iran in Lebanon, issued a warning, saying that Israel’s execution of the deputy Hamas leader on Tuesday in a suburb under their control “will not go unanswered or unpunished.”
Hezbollah called it “a serious assault on Lebanon”.
“We, Hezbollah, affirm that this crime will not go unanswered or unpunished,” the movement said in a statement that called it “a serious assault on Lebanon… and a dangerous development in the course of the war,” the statement added.
Saleh al-Aruri, the deputy commander of the Hamas movement, was killed by an Israeli strike in a Hezbollah stronghold in southern Beirut, two security officials told AFP.
After nearly three months of fighting Israel in the Gaza Strip, Hamas later verified Aruri’s death, which Lebanese state media stated was caused by an Israeli drone strike that claimed six lives in all.
Since Israel’s battle with Hamas started in October, Hezbollah and Israel have fought each other almost every day across borders.
According to Iranian official media, Razi Moussavi, a senior commander of the Quds Force, the foreign operations wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was killed by an Israeli missile strike last month close to Damascus, the capital of Syria.
Moussavi was the most senior Quds Force commander to be killed outside Iran in four years.
Hezbollah said the strike that killed Aruri was “in continuation with… the assassination of commander Razi Moussavi.”
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is set to give a televised speech on Wednesday.