Israel denies responsibility for Beirut assassination

Israel today denied it was behind a car bomb attack that killed a long-time Hezbollah fighter outside his southern Beirut home.

The Islamic militant group called it a “brazen crime” carried out by Israel and threatened revenge.

In an impassioned eulogy for Ghaleb Awali, aged 40, delivered at a walled compound in southern Beirut, Hezbollah chief Sheik Hassan Nasrallah claimed the attack was carried out ”either by Israelis who had entered Lebanon using European, American and foreign passports, or by local Lebanese agents”.

“In any case, the Zionist enemy bears full responsibility for the martyrdom of Ghaleb Awali. We know those agents and we will cut off their hands,” Nasrallah told a crowd of mourners, who responded with shouts of “God is great!” and “Death to Israel!”

In Jerusalem, the Israeli army spokesman’s office denied any Israeli connection to the blast.

Hezbollah TV showed pictures of the burned out car and said it blew up when “one of the strugglers in the resistance” started the engine to leave his home.

A Lebanese security official said the blast went off in the predominantly Shiite Muslim neighbourhood of Harat Hreik, a Hezbollah stronghold.

Several nearby buildings were damaged, their windows shattered, but there were no other casualties in the explosion, he said.

Awali, also known as Abu Mustafa, began participating in operations against Israel in 1982, when Israeli forces invaded southern Lebanon.