Wetherhorn

Last night in an upscale neighborhood of Beirut there was a blast in what probably had been thought a ‘safe’ apartment. The third floor location does not appear to have any overt connection to any terrorist organization, but it was the site of some sort of gathering of Hamas leaders in Lebanon. At least one witness said it was a drone that launched the 2 missiles that flew with pinpoint accuracy into the apartment. The explosion killed 7 people, and did not hurt anyone else in the building.

The most important victim was Salah Al-Arouri. He was known as the second ranking leader in Hamas and was responsible for all Hamas activities in the West Bank. The US had designated him a ‘global terrorist’ years ago and he had a $5M price on his head. So far, no one has claimed the reward. Samir Findi and Azzam Al-Aqra, both brigade commanders in the Hamas military wing Izzedin al Qssam organization, were also in the room. The remaining people killed were also Hamas leaders; Mahmoud Zaki Shahin, Mohammed Bashasha, Mohammed al-Rayes, and Mohammed Hamoud. The names aren’t important, but the fact that they were all part of the Hamas high command is.

Israel is blamed for the attack by most of the world media, and not a few governments. Israeli spokespersons have steadfastly refused to confirm this. The joke on the street in Israel is that the attack was made by the air force of Lichtenstein.

Since the Hamas leaders were in Lebanon, they were probably under the protection of Hezbollah. This naturally leads to a lot of speculation about what Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s chief, will decide to do. I, personally, doubt that he will choose to expand the war. However, he and his Hamas friends might use the incident as an excuse to take over control of Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. Those camps have been under the rule of the Fatah party, the major rival of Hamas for running Palestinian affairs everywhere.

In Gaza, lest we forget, the war grinds on at a relatively slow pace. The IDF suffered 1 soldier killed and 14 others wounded when entering a booby trapped tunnel while clearing munitions and searching for hostages.