The Hamas movement said yesterday, Thursday, that Israel's goal behind the assassination of the deputy head of its political bureau, Saleh Al-Arouri, was to "export its crisis abroad and confuse the calculations of the resistance and the region."

This came in a recorded speech by the head of the movement abroad, Khaled Meshal, commenting on the assassination of Al-Arouri and 6 others, including 2 leaders of Al-Qassam (the armed wing of Hamas), and 4 of the movement’s cadres, in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, on Tuesday evening.

Meshaal added: “The enemy wanted (by assassinating Al-Arouri) to export his crisis abroad and expand the circle of aggression, believing that this would confuse the calculations of the resistance and the region, and that his assassination of the leaders would break the will of the resistance and weaken its leadership.”

He added that this assassination comes in light of "the enemy's failure and disappointment after 3 months of its barbaric aggression and holocaust that it launched against the residents of the Gaza Strip."