Assassination of Hamas Leader in Lebanon
Israel's Desperate Measures Are Cowardly and Will Backfire
Demonstration in Tubas,
West Bank following the assasination of Al-Arouri, January 2,
2024.
Israel's desperation to wipe out the political organization known as Hamas has now led to the cowardly assassination of Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri on January 2 in Dahieh, the southern surburb of Beirut, Lebanon. The attack also killed six others.
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Saleh al-Arouri
CPC(M-L) expresses profound condolences to Saleh al-Arouri's fellow political activists and resistance fighters, to his family and the entire Palestinian people and resistance. Saleh al-Arouri, 57 years old, was Deputy Head of the Political Bureau of Hamas and a key founder of its military arm the Martyr Izz El-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, with specific responsibility for Hamas' work in the West Bank. Resistance News Network informs, "A freed prisoner who spent 18 years in Zionist prisons, Arouri, from Aroura in Ramallah, was instrumental in uniting the fields, galvanizing the escalating resistance in the West Bank, and establishing the Shalit prisoner exchange deal in 2011. He leaves behind a legacy of defiance and resilience, and an indelible influence on the regional resistance."
Al-Arouri was "at the heart of the negotiations" conducted by Qatar and Egypt, Hamas said. His cowardly assassination reveals the Israeli intention to not permit an end to its murderous campaign in Gaza and now also in the West Bank.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said the Palestinian organization is "more powerful and determined" following the attack. [Those martyred by Israel have] left behind them strong men who will carry the banner after them."
Hamas politburo member Husam Badran said in a eulogy for al-Arouri: "We say to the criminal occupation that the battle between us is open."
Similarly, all the Palestinian resistance organizations issued statements honouring al-Arouri and condemning Israel for its cowardly act.
The Lebanese resistance organization Hezbollah called the strike "a serious attack on Lebanon, its people, its security, sovereignty and resistance," Al Jazeera reported. "We affirm that this crime will never pass without response and punishment," Hezbollah said.
Following the assassination, Lebanon's interim Prime Minister Najib Mikati warned that "The explosion is an Israeli crime that clearly aims to bring Lebanon into a new phase of confrontations after the ongoing daily attacks in the south."
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said Arouri's killing would "ignite another surge in the veins of resistance and the motivation to fight against the Zionist occupiers."
The politburo of Yemen's Ansarullah revolutionary group also condemned "the heinous assassination," giving the view that Israel would not have dared to carry it out without U.S. support and approval. Ansarullah said that the assassination "reflects the level of bankruptcy, degradation, and criminality" that the Israeli occupation has reached.
As news of the assassination spread, hundreds of Palestinians protested in the West Bank to condemn al-Arouri's killing. A general strike was announced for January 3, and many shops and businesses remained closed across the territory. All schools and public institutions were closed to mourn al-Arouri's death.
General strike in West
Bank, January 3, 2024, following assasination of al-Arouri.
While Israel has not taken responsibility for the assassination, media in Israel splashed headlines about Saleh al-Arouri's "elimination" across the front pages of their newspapers.
Al Jazeera reports that Israeli officials are said to have been ordered not to discuss the killing of al-Arouri. It reports an Israeli military spokesman saying, "we are on high readiness for any scenario."
Al Jazeera's Nida Ibrahim reported from the city of Arouri that Palestinians believe that Israel assassinated al-Arouri "to show its people a victory which it cannot guarantee in the besieged Gaza Strip."
This is the truth of the matter. The state of Israel, the U.S. and all those countries who are supporting their criminal acts under all kinds of fraudulent pretexts have lost all moral authority and are seriously endangering the peoples of the entire region and world peace. Their attempts to control the region's trade, transportation, security and communications routes and corridors and those of all of Africa and Asia by destroying whoever refuses to submit will not succeed. The peoples of the world are rising to speak in their own names. The Zionists and those who support them financially, militarily and in terms of disinformation are being held to account. The resistance has proven that it is an organized force which wields the collective intelligence made up of both the historical memory of ancient peoples and the fighting spirit of the youth and generations which are imbued with their peoples' right to resist, to fight and to win.
Provocations against Lebanon and Iran, or attacks against the Yemeni resistance and support for the people of Palestine being slaughtered by Israel will backfire. The assassins of Saleh al-Arouri and all the Palestinian martyrs and those who have been killed for supporting their cause will be defeated. The Palestinian resistance is a force to be reckoned with. It will win. Ceasefire Now!
Building
in Dahieh, the southern surburb of Beirut, Lebanon where
al-Arouri was
killed.
Urgency of Increasing Support for the Palestinian Resistance
Even as they refuse to stop supporting Israel or funding the crimes it is committing against humanity, the U.S. and big European powers are now all riled up against a broadening of the regional war in the Middle East. Kandice Ardiel, a spokesperson for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said any potential escalation could have devastating consequences for people on both sides of the demarcation line dividing Lebanon from Israel and the Golan Heights known as the Blue Line.
Meanwhile, an unnamed U.S. Defense Department official told Agence France Presse on January 3 that "The strike was an Israeli strike." Further details were not provided. However, two days after al-Arouri was assassinated, the U.S. carried out a targeted assassination in Baghdad, via drone strike, of Iraqi resistance leader Mushtaq Taleb al-Saidi of the organization Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba. Al-Nujaba is part of what is known as the Axis of Resistance, that includes Iran's Quds Force and Lebanon's Hezbollah. Also in Iran, on January 3, a commemoration for Lieutenant General Qasem Soleimani, was attacked with two explosions.
CPC(M-L) condemns the January 3 terrorist attacks in Iran. Two separate explosions left at least 84 people dead and 285 injured, some critically, in the Iranian city of Kerman where many people were taking part in the fourth martyrdom anniversary of Lieutenant General Qasem Soleimani. The first blast took place 700 metres away from Soleimani's tomb and the second explosion happened one kilometre away from it. Such acts of terror instigated by the refusal of the big powers to solve problems by peaceful means underscore the failure of their hegemonic projects as well as the dangers they pose to the peoples of the world.
Hezbollah Leader Hassan Sayyed Nasrallah addressed al-Arouri's assassination in a speech in Beirut on January 3. This speech had been scheduled in December, before the assassination of al-Arouri, to mark the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Iranian Lieutenant General Soleimani by a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad, Iraq on January 3, 2020. Nasrallah had previously issued a clear warning to Israel against carrying out assassinations on Lebanese soil, vowing a "severe reaction" in response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's explicit threat in August 2023 to assassinate al-Arouri. In Nasrallah's January 3 speech he once again warned Israel, explaining that when Hezbollah, on October 8, joined the fight against the Zionists to support the Palestinian people and resistance in Gaza, it did so in a regulated way, consistent with Lebanese national interests. These limits will disappear should the Zionists wage an all-out war on Lebanon, he said.
Further indicating Israel's recourse to assassination against those who oppose its Zionist reaction, in December 2023, Israeli media published leaked recordings from Ronen Bar, the head of Israel's internal security agency Shin Bet, pledging to locate and take out Hamas leaders "in every location" in the world, including Lebanon, Turkiye and Qatar. "It will take a few years, but we will be there in order to do it," he said in recordings aired by the Kan public broadcaster. "This is our Munich," he added, referring to a series of Israeli assassinations in the 1970s that targeted Palestinians involved in killing 11 Israelis at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
The U.S., on January 4, deployed its criminal Secretary of State Antony Blinken to visit Israel and other countries in the region. While Blinken's agenda has not been revealed, on January 3 a U.S. State Department spokesperson dismissed South Africa's filing of an application instituting proceedings against Israel at the International Court of Justice for the crime of genocide. "Those are allegations that should not be made lightly [...] we are not seeing any acts that constitute genocide [...] That is a determination by the State Department."
On the basis of facts Israel stands accused of genocide.
All Out to
Support the Palestinian Resistance!
Ceasefire Now!
Protest in West Bank,
January 2, 2024, following assasination of Al-Arouri
This article was published in
Volume 54
Number 2 - January 5, 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/MS54021.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca