Funeral of Hamas deputy leader takes place in Lebanon | BBC News

Funeral of Hamas deputy leader takes place in Lebanon | BBC News

Firstly to Lebanon where as we’ve just heard the funeral is being held for the deputy leader of Hamas Salah Al aruri seen as a key intermediary between Hamas which is considered a terrorist organization by many countries around the world and its allies and supporters Israel had threatened action against the

Hamas leadership following the attack on the 7th of October but Israel has not admitted any involvement in the attack in Beirut on Tuesday that blast happening in a part of the city scene as a stronghold of Hezbollah which has blamed Israel but so far seems to have

Maintained the position it took at the start of Israel’s military operation in Gaza which is no major escalation although there have been some limited clashes along the Israeli Lebanese border let’s take you to our Middle East correspondent Hugo Pacha who joins us now from Beirut so Hugo the funeral it seems is

Underway exactly Lucy so it is a little bit after 3:00 in the afternoon here and large crowds have gathered in a Sunni area of Beirut I ahead of A procession uh to the uh shatila refugee camp where the funeral is going to happen later today for Sal Al arui who was killed uh

In that attack that happened Tuesday here in Beirut the deputy Hamas leader assassinated in that attack and this obviously was an attack uh there was a blow for habas but it also hit Hezbollah because this is something that happened in an area of Beirut that is a Hezbollah

Stronghold and yesterday we heard from the uh influential leader of Hezbollah Hassan nazrah who described this assassination as a flagrant Israeli aggression and he said this was a crime that would not go unpunished now again the Israelis haven’t confirmed that they were behind this attack and I think the

Big question is about what is going to happen next what kind of response uh Hezbollah uh is going uh to bring and we’ve seen that uh you know the group has been carrying out these attacks targeting uh Israeli positions in Northern Israel almost every day and Israel has been retaliating but so far

The violence has been contained to the Border region between Lebanon and Israel and I think there have been you know some measures uh you know in place by Hezbollah to uh prevent any kind of uh strong response from Israel and obviously tried to prevent a fullscale confrontation with Israel and there are

Concerns too I’m sure Hugo uh that there will be a repeat perhaps of what happened in 2006 so many people killed a real crisis then as well as Lebanese people watching and seeing what is happening in Gaza exactly and uh you know I’ve been talking to people here in Beirut and

Also in southern Lebanon uh I spent weeks uh in southern Lebanon after the Israel Hamas War broke out back in October and people still remember the devastation brought by the 2006 war between Israel and hollah and uh obviously they fear that history might be repeating itself if you know there is

Another confrontation another conflict between uh Hezbollah and Israel and don’t forget Lebanon is going through a massive economic crisis at the moment so there’s really no public support for another military confrontation with is so I think that any kind of response from Hezbollah is going to be calibrated

To avoid any kind of strong retaliation from Israel and what about the dysfunctional politics in Lebanon as well Hugo we’ve heard from the Prime Minister already that says if there’s going to be a war will Hezbollah be Hezbollah that makes that decision exactly and I think it really

Shows how influential heah is in this country because you know the decisions that the group takes uh reverberate far beyond you know its support base uh it is not only a very powerful military group uh backed by Iran with tens of thousands of rockets including missiles that can strike deep inside Israeli

Territory but it is also a very powerful political organization and a very uh influential social uh movement uh as well so obviously because of this influence and you know importance that hasah has here in Lebanon everybody is watching to see what the group is going to do next

The funeral of Hamas’s deputy leader, Saleh al-Arouri, has taken place in Beirut.

Arouri died in a drone strike on Tuesday, which raised fears that Israel’s war with Hamas could spiral into a wider regional conflict.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for the killing.

Mourners carrying Hamas flags gathered to join the procession.

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