Thousands of people have attended the funeral in Beirut of Saleh al-Arouri, the top Hamas leader assassinated in a suspected Israeli attack in the Lebanese capital two days ago.
Reports say that Crowds carried banners with his picture and waved Palestinian and Hamas flags through the streets amid the sound of music, prayers and heavy gunfire, while Hamas officials vowed to retaliate.
The assassination of Arouri was a blow for Hamas – he was a deputy Hamas leader and a key figure in the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the group’s armed wing – and renewed fears of a wider war in the region. It also hit its Lebanese ally Hezbollah, the powerful Iranian-backed movement, as it struck Dahiyeh, a suburb of the city that is a stronghold for the group.
In Lebanon, again, the focus is on what Hassan Nasrallah, the influential Hezbollah leader, will decide to do.