Netanyahu aide says strike on Hamas official was not attack on Lebanon or Hezbollah

An advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that the strike against Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut was not an attack on Lebanon or Iran-backed Hezbollah.

“Israel has not taken responsibility… Whoever did this did a surgical strike against Hamas leadership,” Mark Regev said in a televised interview with MSNBC.

Pressed further about who else could have been behind the attack, he said, “We can speculate if we like.”

But he also pointed to previous Israeli operations against anyone involved in the October 7 attack or responsible for killing Israelis. “That’s a general statement of policy; it’s gotten nothing to do with the specific situation in Beirut, which I have no comment on.”

Asked if the attack inside Beirut could draw a Hezbollah response, Regev again said the strike was a surgical one “because whoever did this has a gripe with Hamas… it’s not an attack on the Lebanese state, it’s not an attack on the Hezbollah terrorist organization.”

An Israeli drone strike targeted and killed al-Arouri in the Hezbollah stronghold of Beirut’s southern suburbs on Tuesday night.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said an Israeli strike killed at least three people and wounded several others in the strike against an office used by Hamas. Hamas later said two officials from al-Qassam Brigades who were with al-Arouri were killed.