Israel’s long history of assassination attempts in Lebanon

Killing of Hamas officials comes after an 18-year pause in Israel’s targeting of Palestinian leaders in Lebanon.

A drone strike on the southern Beirut neighbourhood of Dahiyeh this week killed several Hamas leaders including Saleh al-Arouri, the deputy leader of the group’s political wing and founder of the military wing, Qassam Brigades. The move represents a major regional escalation in Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed more than 22,000 people there so far. But this was not the first time that Israel has carried out an assassination within Lebanon.

Al-Arouri had been living in exile in Lebanon since 2015. Israel has not taken responsibility for the killings, but it is considered highly likely that Tel Aviv ordered the assassination.

For decades, Israel has targeted Palestinian leaders in Lebanon, a stronghold of the Hamas ally, Hezbollah. However, al-Arouri’s death comes after an 18-year pause in a long list of attempted and successful political assassinations.

Here are some of the key cases.

One of Israel’s first targets in Lebanon was Ghassan Kanafani, a prominent Palestinian author and poet who was assassinated on July 8, 1972 in Beirut along with his 17-year-old niece. A grenade had been connected to the ignition switch of his car. When he started the car, this ignited a plastic bomb that had been planted behind the car’s bumper.