According to Hamas, a senior leader was killed in an attack in southern Beirut

Hamas has announced that a senior official, Saleh Al-Arouri, was among those killed in an attack in the south of Lebanon's capital, Beirut, on Tuesday night.

According to Hamas media outlet Al Aqsa TV, the "Deputy Head of Hamas' Political Bureau, martyr leader Saleh Al-Arouri, was martyred in a treacherous Zionist airstrike in Beirut."

Arouri was a founding member of the group's military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, based in Beirut.

In October, the Israeli army demolished Arouri's home in the occupied West Bank town of Aroura.

At the time, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) stated that forces "operated in the town" overnight to "demolish the residence of Saleh al-Arouri, deputy head of the Hamas terrorist organization's political bureau and in charge of Hamas' activities in Judea and Samaria."

Lebanon's Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, has condemned the explosion that is said to have killed Al Arouri.