BBC Monitoring

Iranian officials have strongly condemned the killing of Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri in a suspected Israeli strike in Beirut.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian criticises Israel for its "cowardly terrorist operations" in a post on X.

Broadcast and print media in Iran are also covering the story widely, reporting on the "martyrdom" of al-Arouri and Israel's "desperation", which they say forced it to carry out the strike.

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) in a statement "strongly condemned" the killing, saying it would boost the "Palestinian fighters's conviction" in their fight against "occupiers".

The IRGC also describes the strike as a "violation of Lebanon's sovereignty".

The rarely-seen Israeli Druze community is seen in these images mourning IDF Staff Sergeant Sufian Dagash, who the Israeli military announced earlier today had been killed fighting in northern Gaza.

The 21-year-old, who also served in the Engineering Corps, was from the Druze city of Maghar in northern Israel.

Druze people are an Arab minority who live in several countries, including Israel, Syria and Lebanon. Although they speak Arabic as their mother tongue, the Druze are not Muslim - their faith is often classified as a branch of Isma'ili.

The Israeli Druze community is the only major non-Jewish group in the country whose members are required to serve in the IDF.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Analysis: What role does Lebanon play in the Gaza-Israel war?published at 14:55 Greenwich Mean Time 3 January

14:55 GMT 3 January

BBC Sounds

Understanding Israel’s history with Lebanon is crucial in light of recent events.

• How do Lebanon and Hezbollah view Israel and the Palestinians?
• What role does the 1982 Lebanon war play today?
• Western states, Israel, Gulf Arab countries and the Arab League have designated Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation but how is it viewed in Lebanon and the region?

Katya Adler and BBC Middle East correspondents explain the history of the formation of Hezbollah and the role it plays in the region in Understand: Israel and the Palestinians podcast.

They take a tour of this Middle Eastern neighbourhood to set out the relationships that could determine the future of the conflict.

Listen to the programme on BBC Sounds here.

Verifying claims of a deadly Khan Younis hospital strikepublished at 14:34 Greenwich Mean Time 3 January

14:34 GMT 3 January

On Tuesday, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) released a video claiming to show the aftermath of an Israeli strike on the al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, which killed five people including a new-born child.

We cannot verify whether people were killed as the video does not show them, but it does show the hospital’s distinctive red livery and the wide concrete steps leading to its entrance. It matches the location of a video from the hospital shared by the PRCS on 20 December, external, which we previously verified.

The video ends outside the hospital, where the shape of the buildings and placement of trees match those seen on Google and other maps of the area.

The weather - partially cloudy with damp on the street - matches yesterday’s report of rain in Khan Younis.

The World Health Organisation published its own video of the damage, external, and repeated the PRCS claim of a very young baby killed.

The IDF have been contacted for comment.

Image source, Reuters

Earlier, we said we'd provide more detail on a reported blast at a Palestinian Red Crescent building in Gaza once we had it - we do now.

Gemma Connell, a spokeswoman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), says a five-day-old-baby was among those killed. "Four more people were killed here today in a space that should be safe," she told Reuters news agency. "But there is no safe space in Gaza and the world should be ashamed.”

She says the facility, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, is "clearly marked with the Red Crescent emblem on the roof" - and yet people still died:

It's just gone 16:00 in Israel and Gaza. There are a lot of different threads around the war in Gaza today, so here's an at-a-glance look at what's going on:

Lebanon

Forensic searches are ongoing in Beirut, following the killing of a senior Hamas official in the Lebanese capital last night. Israel has not officially claimed responsibility.

Some are anticipating a response by the powerful militia Hezbollah, whose leader has previously said killings in Lebanon would be a red line. The UN has said it is deeply concerned about rising tensions and has called on all sides to de-escalate.

The Israeli military has also increased its air defence capacity on the border with Lebanon, where exchanges of fire between the IDF and Hezbollah have been taking place for months.

Gaza

As fighting continues to rage in Gaza, the Hamas-run health ministry says the number killed has risen to 22,313.

The Palestinian Red Crescent aid organisation says many people sheltering in their building have left over fears for their safety, after reporting five people killed and three injured in an Israeli air strike on its headquarters yesterday.

Israel says its troops have killed "dozens of terrorists" in Jabalia, in northern Gaza, and targeted others in Gaza City. Leaflets have been distributed telling residents to leave combat zones in Khan Younis.

Red Sea

Attacks on shipping on the vital trade route linking Asia and Europe continue, with the US saying Houthi rebels in Yemen have fired two missiles at commercial vessels.

A UN security council meeting, which is set to discuss the attacks in the Red Sea, is due to be held later.

The head of the International Chamber of Shipping has told the BBC people are likely to see a rise in the price of goods within weeks because of the cost of re-routing vessels around the Horn of Africa.

Yolande Knell
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

In the past week, we have been reporting that Egypt was trying to bring about a new deal that could lead to renewable ceasefires in the Gaza Strip and the release of more of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas.

Now reports in the Arab media suggest that Cairo has suspended its mediation efforts following the assassination of Saleh al-Arouri. It is also said that a scheduled visit by an Israeli delegation to the Egyptian capital has been postponed.

We have not been able to get official confirmation of that from Egypt.

A Saudi media outlet citing a Hamas source had already reported on Tuesday that Hamas had decided to suspend talks about a possible ceasefire in response to the killing.

Iranian state media is now reporting that 73 people were killed and more than 170 injured in the two blasts during a ceremony in Kerman to mark the anniversary of the killing of a senior commander.

Iranian authorities say it was a terrorist attack.

At least two explosions were reported during a ceremony marking the fourth anniversary of the death of Qassem Soleimani, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps general who was killed by a US drone strike in Iraq in 2020.

Hundreds of people were reportedly walking towards the tomb on Wednesday as part of a ceremony to commemorate him.

Iran is a known funder and supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah and these blasts come amid concerns over escalation in regional tensions.

There will be a meeting of the UN's Security council in New York this evening, which diplomats have said will discuss attacks on shipping in the Red Sea by Houthi rebels from Yemen.

On Tuesday, US Central Command (Centcom) says Houthi forces fired two anti-ship ballistic missiles and multiple commercial ships reported impact in surrounding water. No damage has been reported.

This followed US Navy helicopters sinking Houthi boats it says shot at and were attempting to board a Danish-owned vessel on Sunday.

Missile and drone attacks on commercial vessels have been ongoing from Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen since mid-November, attacking ships passing through the nearby Bab al-Mandab strait.

In response, the US government set up an international coalition in December to protect the vital sea lane - which links markets in Asia with Europe via the Suez Canal in Egypt and is also a key route for fuel shipments from the Gulf.

Shipping firms have been re-routing around the horn of Africa as a safety precaution, but analysts and businesses have warned this far-longer journey will lead to rising prices for a variety of goods.

The Iranian-backed militia is an ally of Hamas and claims it is attacking "Israel-linked" ships in the Red Sea in response to the war in Gaza. A Houthi spokesman says they targeted a French vessel heading for Israel on Tuesday.

• Who are the Houthi rebels?

Image source, .

At least 20 people have been killed by two explosions near the tomb of Iranian Revolutionary Guards general Qasem Soleimani on the fourth anniversary of his assassination, state media say.

State broadcaster Irib said another 60 people were wounded by the blasts during a ceremony near the Saheb al-Zaman mosque in the southeastern city of Kerman.

Kerman province's emergency services chief said they were caused by bombs. A video circulated online appeared to show several bodies on the ground.

Before his death, Soleimani spearheaded Iranian military operations in the Middle East as head of Iran's elite Quds Force, including as architect of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's war against rebels in Syria and orchestrating the rise of pro-Iranian paramilitaries in Iraq.

• Who was Qasem Soleimani?

Yolande Knell
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

A former official in Israel’s Mossad spy agency has been speaking to Israeli public radio about the killing of the senior Hamas official, Saleh al-Arouri.

David Meidan was a key negotiator in Israel’s prisoner exchange deal with Hamas that secured the release of the captured Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit in 2011.

“I have memories of [al-Arouri],” Meidan told Kan News. “I had to deal with four people, and he was the toughest one of them. It was at the headquarters of Egyptian intelligence, but we didn’t sit in the same room.”

“He was certainly one of the most significant people Hamas had,” he went on. “Hamas lost one of its most significant assets.”

Israel's aim in assassinating Hamas's deputy leader was also a strategic move to weaken the network between Hamas and Iranian-backed Hezbollah - that's the view of Anshel Pfeffer, a writer with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

Pfeffer says with any removal of a senior Hamas figure there will always be a replacement, but al-Arouri was a particularly significant figure as he worked as a co-ordinator between the two groups.

"Hamas is not going to go away just because one senior commander has been assassinated," says Pfeffer. He describes Hamas as "a movement which is organic to Palestinian society".

But he says a short-term objective of disrupting the alliance has been achieved.

Image source, EPA

The European Union's foreign policy chief has been speaking at an event in Lisbon today, setting out how he believes the conflict between Israel and Hamas should be resolved.

Josep Borrell says it's down to other countries to come up with a solution. He's quoted by Reuters as telling attendees:

Yolande Knell
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

Israel’s military is reported to have increased the number of its air defence batteries near the Lebanese border.

Its spokesman didn’t comment directly on the killing of the Hamas official but said that Israeli forces were in “a very high state of readiness” for any response.

In the occupied West Bank, Palestinian factions have condemned the assassination, and protests have been taking place.

Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanese armed group, Hezbollah, is due to make a speech later. He’s previously vowed a “severe reaction” to any Israeli killing on Lebanese soil.

Israeli media portray Saleh al-Arouri as having been near the top of an Israeli hit list. But some analysts point out the negative impact that his killing is likely to have on efforts to free more than 100 Israeli hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza.

A former UK ambassador to Lebanon says the assassination of Saleh al-Arouri, Hamas's deputy leader is a "moment of real jeopardy".

Tom Fletcher was speaking on Radio 4's Today programme. He says al-Arouri was a "big fish" and "taking him out in the heart of Hezbollah territory is a big deal".

Fletcher goes on to say Lebanon and Israel will be "braced" and worried about "a miscalculation drawing them deeper into the conflict".

He describes Hezbollah as more battle-hardened than Hamas and says any significant escalation in tensions across the Lebanon-Israel border would be "grim".

For that reason he says Israel are strongly emphasising this was an attack on an individual Hamas leader not against Hezbollah or Lebanon.

Carine Torbey
BBC Arabic correspondent, in Beirut

Image source, Getty Images

In Moucharafiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut where the attack took place, it’s business as usual.

The streets are crowded, the shops are open and press crews are present in very large numbers.

The main street where the killing happened is closed to the public. Lebanese Army tanks are parked alongside the road, while a large poster of Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, adorns an unfinished high-rise nearby.

In the office that was targeted, forensic investigators in white suits survey the area and workers continue to clear the rubble while onlookers comment on the nature of the attack and how precise it was, leaving other apartments in the building almost intact.

But what people worry about the most are the military and political shockwaves of what is seen in Lebanon as a massive escalation by Israel.

Hezbollah's response could change shape of warpublished at 10:45 Greenwich Mean Time 3 January

10:45 GMT 3 January

Lyse Doucet
Chief international correspondent

Israel will “operate against Hamas leaders wherever they are”. That was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s warning in November.

Saleh al-Arouri, Hamas's deputy leader who was killed in Beirut yesterday, was known to be on Israel’s hit lit. He was on the US’s black list too, with a bounty of $5m ($3.9m) on his head since 2018.

Israel doesn’t usually confirm or deny operations like this, but this long conflict is a history of assassinations.

Even before this war with Hamas erupted, Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah warned that any targeted attack on Lebanese soil would trigger a “powerful response". He and his Iranian allies know their response now could change the shape of this war.

Hezbollah has tried to confine its engagement to the southern border with Israel to avoid drawing Lebanon into another costly conflagration. But this attack, in Beirut’s southern suburbs, against the Hamas official who was a key link to Hezbollah and Iran, has jolted its calculations.

Al-Arouri’s death must also be concentrating minds in Turkey and Qatar where Hamas leaders are also based, believing they’d be safer there.

Calls for restraint grow louder as the shadows stretching over this region grow longer, darker.

• To remind yourself what Hezbollah is, head here

In the last few minutes, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry has released its latest death toll of the war with Israel.

It says some 22,313 people are now known to have been killed since 7 October, and a further 57,296 injured.

Our colleagues at BBC Verify previously investigated how the dead are counted in Gaza - the findings of which you can find here.

Israel began its offensive against the Palestinian enclave after Hamas attacked the country in a series of cross-border attacks, killing at least 1,200 people and taking 240 others hostage.

Leaflets are being dropped in the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, warning residents to leave specified areas designated a "combat zone" by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).

The message given is an "urgent warning" to evacuate several blocks in numerous neighbourhoods.

It adds: "For your safety, the IDF urges you to evacuate immediately and go to the well-known shelters in the Shaboura, Al-Zuhur and Tal Al-Sultan neighbourhoods."

Leaflet drops are frequently used by Israeli forces to warn local populations of impending military action.

Image source, Reuters

As fighting rages on in Gaza, those who have been forced out of their homes say the situation is desperate.

Speaking to Reuters, Zayda al-Breem, says displacement is "somewhat bearable, but displacement and winter is unbearable".

Al-Breem - originally from Khan Younis but now in Rafah, both of which are in the south - says she spends all night covering her children and bringing them closer to her. "It is difficult, very difficult."

Another displaced Gazan, Yaser Abu Riyaleh, says he hasn't bathed for a month. "At home I used to take showers four times a day and would spend most of the day soaking in the sea," Riyaleh, originally from al-Shati in the north but also now in Rafah, says.

Alia Ghaban, from Beit Lahiya in the north, speaks of similar issues - but adds that her children became very ill.

"They got diarrhoea and vomiting, a cough and shivers, from the cold and rain, and the lack of clothes and covers," she tells Reuters. "There is nothing, we are ill, our chests hurt because of the cold, there is no heat."

The UN estimates that 1.9 million Gazans (85% of the population) have become internally displaced since the fighting began in October.