Netanyahu demands media silence concerning Hamas deputy chief's assassination in Lebanon

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office demanded that ministers not make statements to the media regarding the assassination of the deputy chief of the political bureau of Hamas in Beirut, Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation reported Tuesday.

Israeli Knesset member from the Likud party, Danny Danon, congratulated security forces for the assassination in what appears to be the first official Israeli acknowledgment of responsibility.

"I congratulate the Israeli army, the Shin Bet, and the Mossad and the security forces on killing the senior Hamas official Salah al-Arouri in Beirut,'' Danon wrote on X.

The Palestinian group Hamas confirmed the assassination in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

Hamas said two commanders of its armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, were also killed.

Lebanon's official National News Agency reported earlier that Arouri was killed in an Israeli drone strike on a Hamas office in Mecherfeh in southern Beirut. At least six people were killed in the attack.