French President Emmanuel Macron called on Israel to avoid escalation, “particularly in Lebanon”, following a strike in Beirut attributed to Israel that killed Hamas’s deputy leader, the Elysee Palace said Tuesday.
During a telephone call with Israeli minister and war cabinet member Benny Gantz, Macron said “it was essential to avoid any escalatory attitude, particularly in Lebanon, and that France would continue to pass on these messages to all players directly or indirectly involved in the area”, the presidency said.
Hamas number two Saleh al-Aruri was killed in a strike attributed to Israel in a suburb of Beirut on Tuesday evening, the Palestinian militant group and Lebanese security officials said, AFP reported.
Israel regularly carries out strikes against the Hamas-allied Hezbollah movement along its shared border with Lebanon, but Aruri’s killing was the first time since the start of the war in Gaza that it has targeted the Lebanese capital.
