UN peacekeepers in Lebanon warn against 'devastating' escalation

BEIRUT — UN peacekeeping forces in on Lebanon warned on Wednesday that increased hostilities could prove "devastating", a day after a presumed Israeli strike killed Hamas's deputy leader in a Hizbollah stronghold in Beirut.

"We are deeply concerned at any potential for escalation that could have devastating consequences for people on both sides," said UNIFIL deputy spokeswoman Kandice Ardiel.

"We continue to implore all parties cease their fire, and any interlocutors with influence to urge restraint."

The strike on Tuesday killed Saleh Al Aruri, deputy head of Hamas, in Beirut's southern suburbs, two Lebanese security officials told AFP, blaming Israel.

Hamas, at war with Israel in Gaza for almost three months, confirmed Aruri's death, which Lebanese state media said came in an Israeli drone strike that also killed six others.

Hamas said Aruri would be buried on Thursday in Beirut's Shatila Palestinian refugee camp.

The attack marked an escalation in the nearly three-month-old war.

Hizbollah has been exchanging near-daily border fire with Israel since the Hamas-Israel war broke out on October 7.

More than 160 people have been killed on the Lebanese side, most of them Hizbollah members but also more than 20 civilians including three journalists, according to an AFP tally.

Aruri, one of Hamas’s principal military strategists, was the first senior official of the movement killed during the war.

The strike was also the first on the Lebanese capital since hostilities began.

Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hizbollah group, a Hamas ally, warned that the killing “will not go unanswered or unpunished”.

The group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah was set to give a much-awaited televised speech on Wednesday.