ISRAEL said it was in “high readiness for any scenario” today as Hezbollah vowed revenge for the assassination of a senior Hamas official in Lebanon.
The comment by military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari will raise fears that the provocative cross-border strike could ignite a wider regional war than that being fought in Gaza, where Israel’s onslaught has now killed over 22,300 people, two-thirds of them women and children.
Israeli intelligence agency Mossad warned that it would hunt down every Hamas member involved “directly or indirectly” in the October 7 attack on Israel, which killed over 1,100 Israelis.
“It’ll take time, as it took time after the Munich massacre [the 1972 Munich Olympics attack by the Black September group, which killed 11 Israelis], but we will put our hands on them wherever they are,” Mossad head David Barnea said in remarks interpreted as claiming responsibility for the strike in Beirut.
The Mossad chief was speaking at the funeral of one of his predecessors, Zvi Zamir, who died aged 98 on Tuesday. Zamir headed Mossad at the time of the Munich atrocity.
Hamas official Saleh Arouri was killed in Beirut on Tuesday along with six others. A deputy to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, he had acted as the movement’s main liaison with its Lebanese ally Hezbollah.
The latter has been exchanging rocket fire with Israel since the October 7 attack, but there were fears the strike in the heart of Lebanese territory could provoke all-out war.
The Lebanese government called on Hezbollah to show restraint in its response. Since October 7, 140 Hezbollah fighters have been killed, mainly in Israeli strikes on Lebanon but some in Tel Aviv’s bombing raids over Syria. Yesterday, Hezbollah and the Israeli military continued to shell each other’s positions.
Despite Israeli claims on Monday to have neared “operational control” of northern Gaza, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant admitted yesterday that Hamas still has thousands of fighters in the area.
An estimated 129 Israeli hostages remain in Hamas hands, with 81 having been released during a week-long truce in late November. Israel has rescued just one hostage. On December 15, the country’s soldiers shot dead three more as they tried to surrender, while an unknown number have been killed by Israeli bombs.
