By Athena Papakosta

The 57 year old Saleh al-Aruri, the deputy head of Hamas’ political bureau, a founding member of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the Islamist Palestinian group’s military arm and its West Bank leader, is dead. Initial reports indicate that the number two in the Hamas hierarchy – behind Ismail Haniya – was killed after an Israeli drone strike in a suburb south of Beirut.

The strike was… surgical and the war is being transferred to Beirut.

The last time the Israelis carried out a strike this deep into Lebanese territory was in 2006 and now international analysts are turning their attention to the response of the Shiite, Iranian-backed Hezbollah which is based in the country and since the start of the ongoing war Israel – Hamas exchanges fire with the Israeli armed forces along the border that separates the two states. Although the Lebanese Shiite group has so far appeared unwilling to dramatically escalate the fighting, a response now could lead to a full-scale war on Israel’s northern border.

In its first reaction early last night, Hezbollah spoke of a dangerous development and warned that it “will not go unanswered or unpunished” while stressing that “the resistance has its finger on the trigger.” It has been four months since last August when Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned of a “strong response” if the group was hit at its headquarters, saying “we will not tolerate it and we will not allow Lebanon to become a new killing field for Israel”.

Iran has already condemned the violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity by “the aggressive Zionist regime” with the country’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani warning that “the martyr’s blood will undoubtedly trigger another explosion in its veins.” resistance against the Zionist occupiers, not only in Palestine but also among all freedom seekers worldwide.”

But, for its part, the Israeli leadership, which has not officially taken responsibility for the strike, stressed, through the top adviser to the Israeli prime minister, Mark Regev – who spoke to the American network MSNBC – that “whoever did this, they should to make it clear that it was not an attack against the Lebanese state.”

Marking which leads many experts to the conclusion that Israel is anxious to convince that the operation was aimed exclusively at Hamas. Correspondingly, when asked, the representative of the Israeli Defense Forces, Daniel Hagari, emphasized that “we remain focused on the war against Hamas” adding, however, that Israel is prepared for any scenario.

The deck in the Middle East has been shuffled and the cards are re-dealt. The killing of Aruri brings back to the forefront the fear of the conflict spreading, and everyone is waiting for the moves that Hezbollah and Tehran will choose a few days before the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, visits Israel once more.