A top Hamas official, Saleh Arouri, has been killed in an Israeli drone strike in the south of Beirut, according to Hezbollah media.

Arouri, one of the founders of Hamas’s military wing, had headed the Palestinian militant group’s presence in the West Bank.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had threatened to kill him even before the Hamas-Israel war began on 7 October 2023.

Israeli officials declined to comment.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said the blast killed four people and was carried out by an Israeli drone.

An explosion shook the Lebanese capital’s southern suburbs on Tuesday evening causing chaos in the militant Hezbollah group’s stronghold, but the nature of the blast was not immediately known.

It was not clear if the explosion inflicted any casualties in the Beirut suburb but videos circulating on social media showed serious damage and fire.

The explosion came during more than two months of heavy exchanges of fire between Israeli troops and members of Hezbollah along Lebanon’s southern border.

Since the fighting began it has been concentrated a few miles from the border but on several occasions Israel’s air force hit Hezbollah targets deeper in Lebanon.

Earlier in the day, Hezbollah said its fighters carried out several attacks along the Lebanon-Israel border targeting Israeli military posts.

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