Exiled in Lebanon for several years, Saleh al-Arouri, a senior Hamas official, was killed Tuesday with his bodyguards in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, a stronghold of Hezbollah.
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In front of the Imam Ali Mosque in south Beirut, a compact crowd of supporters of Hamas and other Palestinian factions came to pay their last respects to Saleh al-Arouri. As the coffin passes, Amina, a green flag on her shoulders, exclaims: “Look at my smile! It is a day of joy and homage to our martyrs. They were cowardly murdered by the Zionists. Here, we are all resistance fighters, ready to die like them. For Palestine, I will sacrifice myself with my children.”
Killed Tuesday by an Israeli strike in the Lebanese capital, Saleh al-Arouri was Hamas number 2. Among the thousands of people present for his funeral, Ziad Hassan, one of his close collaborators. This senior official in the Palestinian Islamist movement knows that he too is a target for Israel.
“Our enemy is brutal and pursues us by all means, in Palestine and abroad. All those who commit to liberate our homeland know that they run the risk of dying for the cause.”
Ziad Hassan, senior Hamas officialat franceinfo
The Mossad has promised to eliminate all people linked to the October 7 massacres.
“I will give my blood for the cause!”
In the crowd, hundreds of young people chant slogans in praise of Hamas. For them, Saleh al-Arouri is now a hero. “This man is a model for us all. And like him, I will give my blood for the cause if God wants it!”, shouts Ahmed, 16, his face covered by a hood. Along the procession, some fighters fired their automatic weapons into the air. They all promise that they will avenge the death of their leader. But some are more reserved: from the terrace of his restaurant, Rifaat worries while watching the procession pass. “If they take revenge, no one knows how it will end. I am for peace, I could never carry a weapon“, he explains.
“Personally, I would have preferred that Hamas did not start this war. Look at the number of victims! But when I say that to my friends, they tell me that I am a bad Muslim. So I prefer to keep quiet.”
Rifaat, living in Beirutat franceinfo
Like him, the majority of Lebanese fear that the spiral of revenge, Hamas and Hezbollah, will drag their country into an endless war. On its knees economically, Lebanon would not recover.