MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Demonstrators took to the streets of the West Bank city of Ramallah today to protest the killing of a top Hamas official in Beirut Tuesday night. Lebanese state-run media said an Israeli drone carried out the blast, killing a Hamas deputy political leader. Israel denies responsibility. But today, the head of Israel's intelligence service, the Mossad, said the agency would hunt down every Hamas member involved in the October 7 attack, which killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel. NPR's Carrie Kahn reports.
CARRIE KAHN, BYLINE: Protesters took over the streets in downtown Ramallah, chanting praise for Saleh al-Arouri, who died in the Tuesday night bombing in the Lebanese capital.
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting in Arabic).
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Chanting in Arabic).
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting in Arabic).
KAHN: Marchers passed shuttered offices and stores, closed as part of a general strike. Hayat Rimawi said Arouri's death angered her and asked, how can Israel justify killing someone in another country?
HAYAT RIMAWI: Which is forbidden in all the world - you know? - to kill anybody in another region, another country? Israel is doing everything which is against the law.
KAHN: Rimawi, an elementary school English teacher, says Arouri was well known in the West Bank, where he was from.
RIMAWI: But now he is more - famous more than he was.
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting in Arabic).
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Chanting in Arabic).
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting in Arabic).
KAHN: Marchers called on all militant groups to unite with Hamas, including the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen. Shawan Jabarin, a human rights leader, says more killings will not end this conflict.
SHAWAN JABARIN: Ending things - you have to act according law. Ending things - you have to act according international justice values and standards. That's the case.
KAHN: He says, without justice for Palestinians, peace will not be achieved.
Carrie Kahn, NPR News, Ramallah. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
