Israel extends the war against Hamas from Gaza to Lebanon. A drone bombed the office of the Islamist organization south of Beirut, the Lebanese capital, on Tuesday. Hamas has confirmed that its number two, Saleh al-Aruri, died as a result of the attack. The Israeli army limited itself to saying that they are “prepared for all scenarios, focused on fighting Hamas”. Lebanon denounced “the Israeli violation of its sovereignty”. The action represents a new leap in the conflict.
The Israeli offensive now includes Lebanon and confirms the warning that Israel sent to Beirut days ago: if nothing was done to stop the attacks carried out by Hizbullah on the border, the Israeli forces would act. This time it was an attack against Hamas that brought the war to the heart of Lebanon.
Israel also attacked Hamas in Beirut at the epicenter of its structure. Al-Aruri, 58 and born in a village near Ramallah in the West Bank, was considered the number two in the Hamas political bureau, and after spending more than ten years in Israeli prisons he was released in 2010 .He resided in Lebanon since 2018 and is considered the instigator of several offensives against the Jewish State on the Lebanese border. The armed wing of Hamas, the Al-Qassam Brigades, of which he was a co-founder, has promised “a response” to his death.
Saleh al-Aruri was also considered one of the main negotiators for Hamas after the October 7 massacre. It does not seem coincidental that, parallel to the Israeli attack in Beirut, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, issued a press release in which he expressed that “the effort [to free the hostages] remains intact. Contacts are maintained. They have not been cut. There was an ultimatum from Hamas; now it has softened. Contacts are maintained.”
Freeing the 129 Israeli hostages held by Hamas remains a central goal of the Israeli offensive on Gaza. And the attack in Beirut complicates it.
The attack against Hamas in the Lebanese capital, which caused at least three deaths, as reported by the National News Agency of Lebanon, changes the scene. Until now, the concern was about the rockets fired daily by the pro-Iranian Hezbollah militia at Israeli positions on the border. Now it moves north, to the capital of Lebanon. In any case, this is Israel’s first military action in Beirut since 2006.
The movement of the Israeli army gives meaning, moreover, to the surprising announcement of withdrawal by the prominent reservists in the Palestinian enclave. The spokesman for the Israeli defense forces, Daniel Hagari, explained it this way for the new year: “The army must plan ahead, because we will be called to additional tasks and combats this year.” In this context, the opening of a front in Lebanon could make sense. All this at a time when the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu is questioned by many Israeli citizens.
The Israeli Supreme Court “has saved our fragile democracy”, “has thrown Netanyahu’s autocratic lies to the ground”, “has given the prime minister and his band of thieves a decisive defeat”, pointed out yesterday the Israeli opposition after the judges rejected part of their Government’s judicial reform that limited judicial power in its governmental control. The decision was a direct blow to Netanyahu’s waterline. A verdict that, in any case, was approved by a fair majority, eight judges to seven.
The latest election poll published in Israel, by the newspaper Maariv, predicted a few days ago a significant fall for Netanyahu’s party, the conservative Likud, which would be left with 17 seats instead of the current 32. Benny Gantz, centrist and part of the national unity war cabinet, would win them adding 38 seats out of a total of 120. And a new poll published on Tuesday by the Israel Institute for Democracy indicates that only 15% of Israelis they want the prime minister to remain in office when the war against Hamas ends.
Netanyahu’s sentence seems pronounced. Now, the same survey says that 56% of Israelis believe that maintaining the military offensive is the best way to recover the hostages. It is the prime minister’s priority, at a time without pause for Gaza. The number of victims climbed to more than 22,000 people yesterday and the fighting was concentrated in Khan Iunis, in the south of the strip, where top leaders of Hamas are believed to be hiding.
