Hezbollah members hold flags marking Resistance and Liberation Day, in Kfar Kila near the border with Israel, southern Lebanon, May 25, 2021. Photo: Reuters/Aziz Taher

Security officials in Lebanon had previously called on Hezbollah to arrest Hamas terrorists operating within the country, including Samir Pandi, who was killed alongside Salah al-Arouri, the deputy head of Hamas’ political bureau, in a drone strike on Tuesday.

According to a report from i24 News in Jan. 2023, Lebanese officials warned that the Hamas cell planned to carry out operations against Israel from Lebanese territory.

According to a separate report in the Beirut Observer, a news site, Lebanese security officials said the presence of Hamas operatives in Lebanon planning such operations posed a danger to their country, which continues to suffer from widespread political and economic instability.

Based in Lebanon, al-Arouri, 57, was a top leader of Hamas and considered the de facto chief of the Palestinian terrorist group’s military wing in the West Bank.

Hezbollah, another terrorist group and an ally of Hamas, has been exchanging near-daily fire with Israel across Lebanon’s southern frontier since the eruption of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza in early October.

Hezbollah operates with impunity within Lebanon, and rules over large swathes of the southern part of the country.