In the explosive war context of the Middle East, the elimination of Saleh al Aruri, one of the top leaders of Hamas, It is especially relevant for several reasons.
Although Israel has not officially confirmed the authorship, it is immediate to assign direct responsibility for this murder, as in fact the White House spokesperson points out in response to questions on the matter, arguing that Israel has the right to defend itself with all means. within their reach (as if there were no limits set by international law). The death of Al Aruri is, without any excuses, a extrajudicial execution (like the one Washington carried out four years ago at the Baghdad international airport to eliminate Iranian general Qasem Soleimani) and a violation of Lebanon’s national sovereignty. And yet, as another sign of the normalization of aberrations that must be condemned without palliatives, it is taken for granted that Israel has carte blanche to get rid of its enemies, without anyone remembering that Lebanon also has the right to legitimate defense against an attack received in his own capital.
The drone attack occurred in Dahiya, nuclear fiefdom of Hezbollah in Beirut, which leads to the assumption that Israel has calculated (probably correctly) that the Lebanese Shiite militia does not have the political will to escalate the conflict it maintains with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for decades. The last time there was a high intensity shock between the two was in the summer of 2006 and since then, although Hezbollah has significantly increased its combat capacity, it is a fact that it has never dared to repeat the experience, aware of its inferiority in forces. That is why it is advisable not to be carried away at this point by the incendiary words of its main leaders, with Hasan Nasrallah at the helm, understanding that it is most likely that they will limit themselves in the short term to increasing to some extent the launch of missiles against Israeli territory, but without going much further.
The Israeli action also shows that for its government The elimination of Hamas leaders is much more important than the release of hostages that the Palestinian militia still has in its hands. Just a week ago Al Aruri was in Qatar, exploring the possibility of a new prisoner exchange with Israel. But now his murder not only interrupts any contact, but also makes it even more difficult for him, after the blow received, to Islamic Resistance Movement is willing to release new Israeli hostages.
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In the same way, the surgical modality chosen to eliminate Al Aruri demonstrates that, when it wishes, Israel has sufficient means – both intelligence, special forces and technology – to strike with extreme precision, minimizing the impact on the civilian population. From this it follows that the massacre that is being carried out in Gaza, contrary to its own arguments about the cleanliness of its actions and its adjustment to international humanitarian law, deliberately seeks the indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians, turning Gaza into an uninhabitable place and forcing a ethnic cleansing impossible to hide with the recurring appeal to inevitable collateral damage.
It should be understood that Israel rationally does not want a full-blown escalation, if only because it would activate forces much more powerful than Hamas and force it to diversify your efforts on multiple fronts, instead of being able to concentrate on the punishment operation that is being carried out in Gaza. But it can also be assumed that for a prime minister targeted by his own public opinion and thwarted in his plans to protect himself judicially by the Supreme Court, the only real option left to avoid prison is to prolong and intensify the conflict. Benjamin Netanyahu He calculates – with the support that Washington gives him – that neither Hezbollah nor Iran – which did not even take that step when Soleimani was eliminated – are currently in a position to engage in a frontal and open war against Israel. It won’t take long to see if it’s right.