This week a call for calm after major Mossad hit, Russian lies and what happened to Al-Qaeda?

Israel’s hit on key Hamas deputy Saleh al-Arouri is a huge symbolic result for its domestic and foreign intelligence agencies

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Rescuers work at a Beirut apartment where sources say Saleh al-Arouri was killed by an Israeli attack (Image: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock)

Israel’s hit on key Hamas deputy Saleh al-Arouri is a huge symbolic result for its domestic and foreign intelligence agencies Shin Bet and Mossad.

Both suffered a severe reputational blow with the October 7 Hamas attacks, even though there is a suspicion the Israeli government knew more of a suspected Gaza plot than it has let on.

The assassination by drone strike of al-Arouri in a south Beirut apartment, along with six henchmen, has doubtless put the Middle East on a knife-edge.

Among the others killed were Samir Pandi, commander of the al-Qassam Brigades in Lebanon, Azzam al-Aqra and Khalil al-Hayya, both of them senior Hamas leaders.

Strategically too, this is a huge blow to Hamas, especially as it has now lost its most senior liaison with Hezbollah on Israel’s other major flank.

Lebanon’s caretaker leader PM Najib Mikati is furious, branding it a “new Israeli crime” but his own country has been hugely weakened economically and politically in recent years.