The head of the Mossad announced Israel’s intention to find and kill all Hamas leaders

Barnea spoke at the funeral of former Mossad director Zvi Zamir, who led Israel’s bloody retaliation against Palestinian militant groups after the killings of Israeli Olympic athletes in Munich in 1972.

“It will take time, just like after the Munich massacre, but we will get them wherever they are… Every Arab mother should know that if her son participated directly or indirectly in the massacre of October 7, his blood will be on his own head,” – Barnea told those present at the funeral.

Israel has not officially claimed responsibility for the attack on the southern suburbs of Beirut, which killed Saleh al-Arouri, Hamas’ deputy political leader, The Guardian notes.

In recent months, Israeli officials have vowed to repeat a campaign launched after Munich that has led to more than a dozen killings in European countries, North Africa and Lebanon. Both Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, and Ronen Bar, head of Shin Bet, the internal security service, have promised the public and parliamentarians to hunt down Hamas leaders abroad.

Israel has been waging a nearly three-month war against Hamas in Gaza since the Palestinian militant group carried out an Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel that killed at least 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

The offensive launched by Israel in Gaza following the attack has since killed at least 22,313 Palestinians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory.

Hamas officials reacted strongly to the killing of 58-year-old Arouri. “We say criminal occupation [Израиля]“that the battle between us is open,” said Hussam Badran, a member of the Hamas politburo.

Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, said the organization had become “more powerful and decisive” after the strike, which killed six other Hamas officials. The killing heightened fears of a major outbreak of violence on Israel’s northern border.

Hezbollah, a heavily armed Islamist Shiite militant movement based in Lebanon and loosely linked to Hamas, has exchanged cross-border fire with Israel almost daily since the Gaza war began. More than 100 Hezbollah fighters and two dozen civilians were killed in Lebanese territory in the violence, as well as at least nine Israeli soldiers in Israel.

In a highly anticipated televised speech on Wednesday, Hasran Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader, called Arouri’s killing a “heinous crime” that “will not go unanswered or unpunished” but stopped short of declaring an immediate escalation of hostilities.

Nasrallah argued that Hezbollah had already prevented an Israeli invasion of Lebanon and was not afraid of war. “We will not be intimidated… If you are thinking about war with us, you will regret it,” Nasrallah said, adding that he would provide more details about Hezbollah’s response to Arouri’s killing in a second speech on Friday.

Candice Ardiel, a spokeswoman for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which was deployed to southern Lebanon in 1978 in an attempt to prevent conflict between militants there and Israel, said UN officials were deeply concerned about any possibility of escalation, which could have devastating consequences for people on both sides of the border. border.

“We continue to implore all parties to cease fire and to urge restraint from any influential interlocutors,” she said.

As The Guardian recalls, Arouri, who was killed in a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut, is believed to be the first senior Hamas leader to die since October 7. Analysts say it is difficult to predict how Hezbollah will react.

Nasrallah, who has led Hezbollah since an Israeli strike killed his predecessor in 1992, appears reluctant to escalate the current level of fighting, perhaps fearing a repeat of the month-long 2006 war in which Israel massively bombed Beirut and southern Lebanon.

His decision will depend on the opinion of senior leaders in Tehran, The Guardian emphasizes. Iran oversaw the creation of Hezbollah after Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon and remains an influential backer of the group.

Some analysts have suggested that Iran’s often belligerent rhetoric may not be matched by action, as Tehran now sees Hezbollah’s primary role in providing the threat of retaliation if Israel strikes Iran directly. Iranian officials would therefore be reluctant to risk the most powerful member of the “axis of resistance” they have created across the region in a major war.

“I don’t think Hezbollah would want to drag Lebanon into a major conflict at this particular moment, given the situation in the region,” said Maha Yahya of the Carnegie Middle East think tank.

In recent weeks, Israeli officials have warned of action against Hezbollah if its cross-border fire does not stop. Tens of thousands of Israelis are still forced to flee their homes along the Lebanese border for fear of bombing or raids.

Military officials said Israeli forces were prepared for any scenario, and Israel’s National Radio reported the deployment of additional Iron Dome missile defense batteries.

The US State Department said US officials were closely monitoring the situation. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to visit Israel next week.

Observers warn that Arouri’s killing is further evidence that the war between Israel and Hamas is spreading throughout the region. Violence involving other militant groups in the Iranian-led “axis of resistance” has flared in recent weeks as Houthi rebels have attacked cargo ships in the Red Sea, a key shipping route for global trade.

On Wednesday, the United States, Britain, Australia and nine other countries warned of unspecified consequences if the Houthis do not stop such attacks, but it is unclear what impact such calls will have.

Violence also occurred in Syria, Iraq and the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian territory where Arouri was born. Hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets of Ramallah and other West Bank cities to condemn his killing, chanting “revenge, revenge,” and the Palestinian Authority called a general strike to mourn his death.

In Israel, the killing was widely welcomed, writes The Guardian. A headline in local newspaper Israel Hayom called Arouri a “mass murderer” and hailed “a fitting end for the man responsible for countless terrorist attacks.” In the mainstream newspaper Yediot Ahronot, columnist Nahum Barnea wrote that Aruri “has earned his rightful place” on Israel’s kill list.

With Israeli military casualties mounting, resistance continuing and Hamas’s most senior leaders still unscathed, Israeli officials are under increasing pressure to show results to boost domestic morale. Netanyahu has vowed to continue the offensive in Gaza until Hamas is destroyed and more than 100 hostages taken Oct. 7 and still held by the militant group in Gaza are freed.

The campaign forced about 85% of Gaza’s population from their homes, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to live in overcrowded shelters or overcrowded tent camps in Israeli-designated safe areas that the military nonetheless bombed. Israel’s siege of the area has left a quarter of Gazans at risk of starvation, according to the UN.

Palestinians reported heavy airstrikes and artillery shelling in the southern city of Khan Yunis and agricultural areas in the east.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said Israel bombed its headquarters in the city, killing five people, and after a strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza on Tuesday, Palestinians rushed to rescue victims and retrieve bodies from the rubble.

“There are about 12 martyrs so far, mostly children,” said bereaved Ghazi resident Darwish. “What is their fault? Among them is my one-month-old son, what has he done to Israel? My other son is five years old, he also suffered martyrdom.”

Further south, in Khan Yunis, the Palestinian Red Crescent said Israel struck its headquarters twice on Tuesday, killing five people.

The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, condemned the strikes as “unconscionable” and said that “Gaza’s health system is already on its knees.”