BEIRUT, Lebanon — Thousands of people took to the streets of Beirut Thursday for the funeral of top Hamas terrorist Saleh al-Arouri, calling for the terror group to avenge his killing in an apparent Israeli airstrike on an apartment in the Lebanese capital Tuesday night.
Draped in Palestinian and Hamas flags, Arouri’s coffin and those of two other Hamas members killed in the strike were first taken to a Beirut mosque for prayers before being marched to the Palestine Martyrs Cemetery at the Shatila refugee camp, where top Palestinian officials killed by Israel over the last five decades are buried.
Arouri’s automatic rifle was placed on his coffin at the prayer service, and heavy gunfire rang out during the procession drowning out chants of “Allahu Akbar” (God is Greatest) by mourners waving Palestinian flags and those of Hamas and allied terror group Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
“Abu Obeida, bomb Tel Aviv,” mourners shouted, addressing the shadowy spokesman of Hamas’s Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades military wing, who is known by his nom de guerre.
The funeral was attended by Palestinian officials, including senior Hamas terrorist Moussa Abu Marzouk, as well as representatives of some Lebanese political groups, though Israeli media reported that senior Hezbollah officials stayed away.
People tried to touch the coffins that were surrounded by Hamas members wearing green caps. Some of the Hamas members were armed.
“The enemy is running away from its failures and defeats [in Gaza] to Lebanon,” Hamas’s top leader Ismail Haniyeh said in a speech aired during the funeral. He added that the killing of Arouri in Beirut “is a proof of [Israel’s] bloody mentality.”
Lebanese officials and state media said an Israeli drone fired two missiles Tuesday at an apartment in Beirut’s southern Musharafieh district, a stronghold of Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah terror group, instantly killing Arouri along with six other Hamas members, including military commanders.
The coffins of Azzam al-Aqraa of the al-Qassam Brigades and Mohammad al-Rais, two of those killed in the strike alongside Arouri, were also included in the funeral.
Arouri is the most senior Hamas figure to be killed since the Israel-Hamas war broke out in Gaza on October 7, sparked by the terror group’s assault on southern Israel. Some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed as heavily armed terrorists overran communities, bases and other sites during the unprecedented attack; over 240 people were taken hostage, many of whom remain captive in Gaza.
The No. 2 figure in Hamas’s politburo and a founder of the group’s military wing, Arouri had been in Israel’s sights for years. Israel had accused Arouri, 57, of masterminding attacks against it in the West Bank, where he was the group’s top commander. In 2015, the US Department of the Treasury designated Arouri as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, offering $5 million for information about him.
Mourner Oman Ghannum said he wanted to take part in the funeral procession “to denounce the genocide underway in Gaza and the violation of Lebanese sovereignty by Israel.”
“The assassination of Saleh al-Aruori and of any other Palestinian is a failed act because the resistance will continue to produce new leaders,” the 35-year-old Palestinian said.
Several Hamas figures in exile reside in Lebanon under the protection of Hezbollah, which has carried out near-daily attacks on northern Israel since October 8 in support of Hamas.
Israel has vowed to “destroy” Hamas after the unprecedented attack on October 7, and has warned that it will hunt down Hamas leaders wherever they are. On Wednesday, Mossad head David Barnea said the spy agency was “committed to settling accounts” with those behind the October 7 attack, vowing to hunt down all involved “directly or indirectly,” including “planners and envoys.”
“It’ll take time, as it took time after the Munich massacre, but we will put our hands on them wherever they are,” he said, referring to Israel’s international campaign to track down and kill Palestinian terrorists who attacked and killed members of Israel’s Olympics team in 1972.
Israel has not claimed any responsibility for Arouri’s killing, but a US defense official said Wednesday that Israel was behind the attack.
Arouri’s killing has spiked tensions in the already volatile region, where Israel’s ongoing ground offensive in Gaza has been met with attacks and threats from Iran-backed groups around the Middle East, including daily exchange of fire between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters and Yemen’s Houthi rebels attacking ships passing through the Red Sea.
In a speech Wednesday evening, Hezbollah terror chief Hassan Nasrallah promised revenge, repeating his group’s statement that “this dangerous crime” of Arouri’s killing will not go “without response and without punishment.” He specified neither when or how this would happen.
He also warned Israel against starting a war in Lebanon, vowing that his group would fight back without restraint.
Nasrallah said Hezbollah had so far been careful in its strategic calculus in the conflict, balancing “the need to support Gaza and to take into account Lebanese national interests.” But if the Israelis launch a war on Lebanon, the group is ready for a “fight without limits.”
“They will regret it,” he said. “It will be very, very, very costly.”
On Wednesday, Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon killed nine Hezbollah members, including a local commander, in one of the highest death tolls for the group since fighting along the Lebanon-Israel border began on October 8. Since then, Hezbollah has lost 143 fighters.
On Thursday, an airstrike on the Iraqi capital Baghdad killed a high-ranking commander of an Iran-backed group. The group blamed the US for the attack, and an American official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t permitted to speak publicly, confirmed that the US military carried out the strike.