Extract from ABC News
Thousands of people have attended the funeral in Beirut of Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Aruri who was killed in a Lebanon strike that has been blamed on Israel.
Calling on Hamas to avenge his death and the killing of five other members of the Palestinian militant group on Tuesday, the mourners gathered at a mosque to recite the prayer of the dead before marching to Shatila refugee camp where three of them were to be buried.
The coffins of the three, al-Aruri, Azzam al-Aqraa of the Hamas military wing Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, and Mohammad al-Rais, were draped in Palestinian and Hamas flags.
A machine gun was laid on top of each coffin and heavy gunfire rang out as the funeral procession made its way to the cemetery, drowning out chants of "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest) by mourners waving Palestinian flags and those of Hamas ally Islamic Jihad.
In a pre-recorded speech broadcast at the funeral, the Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh, said: "The enemy thinks that with the assassination of Saleh al-Aruri, it can defeat the resistance and impose its conditions.
"But it has failed, and it will never be able to force Hamas to abandon its demands, its vision and its strategy," he said from his base in Qatar.
Al-Aruri and the six other Hamas members were killed in a strike in a south Beirut stronghold of the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.
Hamas and Lebanese security officials accused Israel of launching the attack, with one high-level Lebanese security official saying they were targeted by guided missiles.
Israel has not claimed responsibility.
Al-Aruri is the most senior Hamas figure to be killed since the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7 when Hamas attacked Israel.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel in a speech on Wednesday against starting a war in Lebanon, vowing that his group would fight back without restraint.
Several Hamas figures in exile reside in Lebanon, under the protection of Hezbollah.
Israel neither confirmed nor denied assassinating al-Arouri but has promised to annihilate Hamas, which rules Gaza, following its October 7 cross-border assault in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed and some 240 abducted.
The Israeli offensive on Gaza has killed 22,438 people, mostly women and children, according to the latest figures supplied by the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
Fear of wider conflict
Israel's military spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, declined to comment when asked what Israel was doing to prepare for a potential Hezbollah response, saying only: "We are focused on the fight against Hamas."
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, meeting US envoy Amos Hochstein, said there must be a "new reality" in the Lebanon-Israel border region that would allow Israelis who have evacuated northern areas to return.
"We will not tolerate the threats posed by the Iranian proxy, Hezbollah, and we will ensure the security of our citizens," he was quoted in a ministry statement as saying.
Hezbollah has been embroiled in nearly daily exchanges of shelling with Israel across Lebanon's southern border since the Gaza war began.
But US officials said on Wednesday they saw little sign that Hezbollah was about to escalate actions against Israel.
Adding to the patchwork of violence across the region, two explosions on Wednesday killed nearly 100 people during a memorial ceremony for the late Iranian General Qasem Soleimani at the cemetery in south-eastern Iran where he is buried.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was heading for the Middle East, including a stop in Israel, to continue "diplomatic consultations", a US official said.
Khan Younis shelling
Israeli shelling killed 14 Palestinians on Thursday in Khan Younis in a southern coastal area of the Gaza Strip packed with people who had fled attacks in other parts of the enclave, Gaza health ministry officials said.
Israeli shells had landed near tents erected in the area by displaced people, according to health ministry officials.
The dead included nine children, an official told Reuters.
There was no comment from the Israeli military on the attack although it had reported fighting and air strikes against Hamas militants in the Khan Younis area on Thursday.
Footage circulated in Palestinian media showed several bodies wrapped in blankets inside a hospital morgue in Khan Younis.
Gaza residents also said Israeli planes and tanks bombarded three refugee camps in the centre of the shattered enclave, prompting many civilians to head south.
Gazans left homeless under Israel bombardments
Israeli bombardments have flattened much of the densely populated enclave and created a humanitarian disaster.
Most Gazans have been left homeless, with food shortages threatening famine.
On Thursday, people poured out of Al-Bureij, Al-Maghazi and Al-Nusseirat refugee camps following attacks, with some families riding on donkey carts loaded with mattresses, luggage and children.
Rain has turned earth to mud, adding to the misery of people whose next home was likely to be a tent on a patch of waste ground.
"Israel is showing its muscles on civilians, women and children. They are cowards," said Salama Ahmed, 49, a north Gaza resident and father of five heading to Rafah in the south.
"Are they fighting Hamas? They are fighting the unarmed civilians," he told Reuters.
Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee said it was closing one humanitarian corridor along which people could flee and opening another.
Only movement from north to south would be allowed, he said. It will be open for five hours until 4pm local time.
While Israel has pledged to eradicate Hamas, its long-term plans for the enclave are unclear.
Foreign governments and organisations have said any solution must address Palestinian aspirations for an independent state, but that prospect seems distant.
In the occupied West Bank, where Palestinians also seek statehood, Israeli forces searched houses in the Nour al-Shams refugee camp in Tulkarm city on Thursday.
Residents said troops detained at least 120 people and demolished three houses, including one belonging to a member of the Tulkarm Brigades, a militant group linked to the Palestinian faction Fatah.
ABC/wires
No comments:
Post a Comment