Beirut, 2 January 2024 (dpa/MIA) — Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Aruri has been killed in a blast in Beirut, Hezbollah sources say.

The Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar television station also reported that Al-Aruri, the deputy Head of Hamas Political Bureau who lives in Beirut, had died.

Footage showed at least one car burning near a busy street near the scene of the explosion in a suburb considered a stronghold of Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah militia. Ambulance sirens could also be heard.

The explosion occurred on the eve of the third anniversary of the killing of General Qasem Soleimani of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), who died in a US drone strike in Iraq in 2020. Iranian senior General Sejed-Rasi Mousavi was also recently killed in a suspected Israeli airstrike in Syria.