Netanyahu says that efforts to recover hostages from Gaza are underway and directs his ministers not to give any statements to the media regarding the assassination of Hamas’ political leader in Lebanon

A statement from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that efforts to recover the remaining hostages held by Hamas in Gaza are continuing.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directed the ministers not to announce to the media the assassination of the Deputy Head of the Political Bureau of Hamas, Saleh al Arouri, in Beirut.

On Tuesday evening, Israel assassinated Saleh al Arouri and two leaders of the al Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, in a bombing in the southern suburb of the Lebanese capital.

The official Israeli Broadcasting Corporation said, “Netanyahu’s office instructed the ministers not to conduct interviews or give any statements to the media regarding the assassination of Arouri”.

Immediately after the announcement of the assassination of the prominent Hamas leader, two Israeli ministers and a member of the Knesset commented.

Before directing Netanyahu’s office not to comment on Arouri’s assassination, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich wrote on his account on X, “This is how all your enemies will be annihilated, O Israel”.

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi also commented, quoting verse No. 31 from the Book of Judges in the Torah, “Thus shall all your enemies be destroyed, O Lord. And his loved ones are like the rising of the sun in its might. The land was at rest for forty years”.

He accompanied his post on X with a photo Arouri with the Secretary-General of the Lebanese Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah.

While a member of the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee in the Knesset, Danny Danon, wrote on X, “I congratulate the Israeli army, the Shin Bet, the Mossad, and the security forces on the assassination of senior Hamas official Salah al Arouri in Beirut”.

He added, “Let everyone who participated in the 7/10 massacre know that we will reach them and close the account with them”.

The death toll in the assassination of Saleh al Arouri, deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, in Beirut, rose to 6, in addition to 11 wounded, according to an official source.

The official Lebanese News Agency said, “The number of martyrs in the explosion in the southern suburb of Beirut, which targeted a Hamas office, has risen to 6 martyrs”.

The Lebanese News Agency explained that “the hostile raid targeted the Hamas office, where a meeting of the Palestinian factions was being held,” noting that “two missiles targeted the Hamas office and escort vehicles parked in front of the building”.

On Tuesday evening, the official Lebanese news agency reported that Israel assassinated Arouri (57) in an attack in the southern suburb of the capital, Beirut, resulting in the death of 3 martyrs.

During the period between 1990 and 1992, the Israeli army administratively detained al Arouri (without trial) for limited periods, against the backdrop of his activity in Hamas movement.

In the same year, Israel re-arrested al Arouri to spend 15 years in its prisons, only to be deported after his release.

Saleh al Arouri is considered one of the founders of the al Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas.

He began establishing the first nucleus of the movement’s military apparatus in the West Bank in the period between 1991 and 1992.