Strike on Hamas leader in Lebanon sends tension spiking across Middle East
Al Jazeera
Western officials call for calm as rhetoric hots up across the region.
The UN and France have called for restraint as fears of further escalation of the Israel-Gaza war around the region rise in the wake of the strike on a Hamas leader in Lebanon late on Tuesday.
Saleh al-Arouri, a senior official in Hamas’s politburo, was killed along with six others in the attack on the outskirts of Beirut. Israel has not taken responsibility, but concern was rising on Wednesday that the conflicts that its war with Hamas have sparked across the region could expand further.
Amid Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, and the support being offered by allies led by the US, violence has been on the rise in the occupied West Bank, on the Lebanon border, in Iraq and Syria, and in the Red Sea. There is now worry that the Beirut strike threatens to provoke a full war between Hezbollah, which is based in Lebanon, and Israel.
A spokesperson for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said any potential escalation could have devastating consequences for people on both sides of the Blue Line – the demarcation line dividing Lebanon from Israel and the Golan Heights.
“We continue to implore all parties to cease their fire, and any interlocutors with influence to urge restraint,” Kandice Ardiel added.
