Although its adversaries threatened to exact "punishment" for the assassination of a Hamas leader in Beirut, Israel has maintained that the incident was not an attack on Lebanon.
Israel has described what happened as a "surgical strike against the Hamas leadership" but has not acknowledged or denied that it killed Saleh al-Arouri.
It was referred to as a "terrorist act" by Hamas and an attack on Lebanese sovereignty by Hezbollah, its partner.
According to Lebanon's PM, Israel is attempting to "drag" the country into a regional conflict.
According to Lebanese media, Arouri, the deputy political leader of Hamas, and two other Hamas military leaders and four other members were among the six people were died in a drone hit in southern Beirut on Tuesday.
He was a prominent member of Hamas's military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, and a close ally of the organization's leader, Ismail Haniyeh. He had been serving as a liaison between his organization and Hezbollah.
Since the beginning of Israel's conflict with Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah and Israeli forces have engaged in almost daily gunfire, but the bloodshed has so far only occurred in the vicinity of the Israel-Lebanon border.
Hezbollah is the biggest political and military force in Lebanon and has ministers in the government of the nation. Like Hamas, it is regarded as a terrorist organization by Israel, the UK, and other countries.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) declared that its soldiers were "highly prepared for any scenario" but declined to comment on the killing of Saleh al-Arouri.
The IDF, according to spokesman Rear Adm Daniel Hagari, is "in a very high state of readiness in all arenas, in defense and offence."
"The most important thing to say tonight is that we are focused and remain focused on fighting Hamas," he stated.
Although he did not explicitly claim that Israel was the perpetrator of the strike, Israeli government advisor Mark Regev told MSNBC that "whoever did it, it must be clear that this was not an attack on the Lebanese state."
"Not even the terrorist group Hezbollah was the target of the strike.
"Whoever carried out this action executed a precision attack on the Hamas hierarchy." This person has a problem with Hamas. That much is evident."
Since Israel and Hamas went to war following the group's strike on October 7, Arouri, 57, is the most senior Hamas figure to be murdered.
That day, waves of Hamas terrorists broke into Israel and targeted border settlements, murdering over 1,200 people—mostly civilians—and capturing about 240 more as hostages and sending them to Gaza.
In retaliation, Israel began a military campaign with the stated goal of eliminating Hamas.
According to Gaza's health ministry, which is managed by Hamas, over 22,000 Palestinians, predominantly women and children, have perished as a result of Israeli strikes since then.
According to Lebanon's official news agency, Arouri was murdered by an Israeli drone strike on a Hamas office in the Dahiyeh area in southern Beirut.
A Reuters news agency witness reported seeing paramedics and firefighters gathered around a high-rise structure with a gaping hole in what looked to be the third story.
Social media footage from the scene revealed numerous damaged buildings and a burning car in a popular residential area.
A "cowardly... terrorist act, a violation of Lebanon's sovereignty, and an expansion of its circle of aggression," according to Mr. Haniyeh, the head of Hamas's political bureau.
"A serious assault on Lebanon, its people, its security, sovereignty, and resistance, and the highly symbolic and significant political and security messages it contains," declared Hezbollah in response to Arouri's passing.
It stated that the assault was "a dangerous development in the course of the war... and we in Hezbollah affirm that this crime will never pass without response and punishment" .
"Its hand is on the trigger, and its resistors are in the highest levels of readiness and preparedness," it continued.
Significantly endorsing both factions, Iran declared that Arouri's murder will "undoubtedly ignite another surge in the veins of resistance".
Tuesday night's Israeli security cabinet meeting, which was supposed to address the post-war strategy for Gaza, was canceled.
In order to "impress on them that they should not respond themselves," the Lebanese government is in talks with Hezbollah, according to Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib, who spoke with BBC Radio 4 on the subject. However, he added, "We don't tell them, we dialogue with them in this regard."
"We are very concerned, [the] Lebanese don't want to be dragged, even Hezbollah does not want to be dragged into a regional war," he continued, adding that it will become evident "whether they respond or not" over the course of the following day.
And he asked the international community to "pressure Israel to stop also all its violence and all of its actions, not only on Lebanon, not only on Beirut, but also in Gaza" .
Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, has repeatedly pledged to kill Hamas's leaders wherever they may be.
According to Israeli media sources, Arouri was also in charge of attacks in the West Bank and was regarded as the de facto chief of Hamas's armed branch.
He has done time in Israeli jails for past crimes and is thought to have played a role in the 2014 kidnapping and murder of three Israeli youths in the occupied West Bank, according to sources.
According to The Times of Israel, he was also among the Hamas leaders with the strongest ties to Iran and Hezbollah.
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