From the Liveblog of
Thursday, January 4, 2024
1,000 attend funeral procession of assassinated Hamas terror chief being buried in Lebanon’s Shatila Camp
Over 1,000 people attend the funeral procession of Hamas terror chief Saleh al-Arouri who was assassinated in an alleged Israeli airstrike along with five others in Beirut on Tuesday.
Arouri is being buried with two others killed in the Shatila refugee camp, which was targeted in a 1982 massacre by Israeli-backed Lebanese Christian Phalangists.
Mourners are heard calling on Hamas to avenge Arouri’s death as they gathered at a mosque to recite the prayer of the dead before marching to Shatila refugee camp.
The coffins of the three, Arouri, Azzam al-Aqraa of the Hamas military wing Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, and Mohammad al-Rais, were draped in Palestinian and Hamas flags.
A machine gun is laid on top of each coffin and heavy gunfire rang out as the funeral procession made its way to the cemetery, drowning out chants of “Allahu Akbar” (God is Greatest) by mourners waving Palestinian flags and those of Hamas terror ally Islamic Jihad.
“Abu Obeida, bomb Tel Aviv,” the mourners shouted, addressing the Gaza spokesman of the Hamas military wing by his nom de guerre.
“The assassination of Saleh al-Aruri and of any other Palestinian is a failed act because the resistance will continue to produce new leaders,” one of the mourners, Oman Ghannum, tells AFP.
