Beirut [Lebanon], January 4: There were calls for restraint as concerns continued to rise about an escalation of the Gaza conflict after the killing of a Palestinian Hamas leader in Beirut, where the leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah militia prepared to address supporters on Wednesday.
The UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said it was concerned about the security situation in the country.
The UN mission, which has been monitoring the border area between Israel and Lebanon since 1978, called on all parties to cease their fire and urged restraint. The deputy head of the political bureau of the Palestinian militant organization Hamas, Saleh al-Arouri, was killed in an explosion in Lebanon's capital Beirut on Tuesday evening.
Hamas immediately blamed Israel. While Israel's military declined to comment on reports of a targeted killing, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah announced that this "crime will not pass without an answer or punishment." Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was scheduled to deliver a speech late Wednesday. The Lebanese government said it was in talks with Hezbollah to avoid an escalation after the killing in Beirut's southern suburbs, a stronghold of Hezbollah. According to Hamas, which is allied with Hezbollah and is also supported by Iran, a total of seven people died, including two leaders from Hamas' armed wing.
Hezbollah staged at least three attacks on Israeli posts near the Lebanese border on Wednesday, triggering retaliatory shelling on southern Lebanon, Lebanese security sources and the Israeli army said.
The Israeli army also said they attacked terrorists in Lebanon and "Hezbollah's terrorist infrastructure." Hezbollah said they attacked several Israeli posts near the Lebanese border. The group also mourned the loss of two additional members, raising the death toll among Hezbollah's fighters to 142 since October 7.
Iran said that the killing will have consequences and blamed the United States for the rising tensions. Tehran also blamed its arch-enemy Israel for the alleged attack.
"The malicious activities of the terror machinery of this [Israeli] regime in other countries are a real threat to peace and security," Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian wrote on the platform X.
Source: Qatar Tribune
