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JERUSALEM — The chief of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service vowed Wednesday the agency would hunt down every Hamas member involved in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, no matter where they are. His pledge came a day after the deputy head of the Palestinian terrorist group was killed in a suspected Israeli strike in Beirut.
Israel has refused to comment on reports it carried out the killing, but the remarks by David Barnea appeared to be the strongest indication yet it was behind the blast.
Israel was on high alert Wednesday for an escalation with Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah militia after the strike in the Lebanese capital killed Saleh Arouri, the most senior Hamas member slain since the war in Gaza erupted nearly three months ago.
The strike in Hezbollah’s southern Beirut stronghold could cause the low-intensity fighting along the Lebanon border to boil over into all-out war.
In a speech Wednesday evening, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah promised revenge, repeating his group’s statement that “this dangerous crime” of Arouri’s killing will not go “without response and without punishment.” But he left the audience guessing as to when and in what form, though he said he would address the issue further in a speech Friday.
Nasrallah said Hezbollah had so far been careful in its strategic calculus in the conflict, balancing “the need to support Gaza and to take into account Lebanese national interests.” But if the Israelis launch a war on Lebanon, the group is ready to “fight back without ceilings and without limits.”
“They will regret it,” he said. “It will be very, very, very costly.”
Hezbollah and the Israeli military have been exchanging fire almost daily over the Israeli-Lebanese border since the war in Gaza began. But Nasrallah has appeared reluctant to escalate it further. At the same time, Hezbollah also faces pressure to show support for its ally Hamas.
Hezbollah boasts an arsenal of tens of thousands of rockets and missiles as well as different types of drones. Hezbollah said Wednesday that its fighters carried out at least eight attacks against Israeli posts along the border, including four using heavy warhead Burkan rockets. The statement did not directly link the fire to Arouri’s killing.
Arouri was the deputy of Hamas’ supreme political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, and headed the group’s presence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. He was also a key liaison with Hezbollah.
A U.S. official confirmed that the Israeli military carried out the strike that killed Arouri and did not give the White House advance notice. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the operation.
The strike would be the first time since the war that Israel has reached into another country to target Hamas leaders, many of whom live in exile around the region.
Barnea said the Mossad is “committed to settling accounts with the murderers who raided the Gaza envelope,” referring to the area of southern Israel that Hamas attacked. He vowed to pursue everyone involved, “directly or indirectly,” including “planners and envoys.”
The Mossad chief’s comments suggested more assassinations of Hamas figures were to come, echoing threats by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to kill Hamas leaders wherever they are.
But the focus of the war remains on Gaza. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said several thousand Hamas fighters remain in northern Gaza, where Israeli troops have been battling for over two months and where entire neighborhoods have been blasted into rubble.
Heavy fighting is also underway in central Gaza and the southern city of Khan Younis, where Israeli officials say Hamas’ military structure is still largely intact. Yehya Sinwar, Hamas’ top leader in Gaza, and his deputies have thus far eluded Israeli forces.
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Associated Press
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