Lebanon citizens: ‘Hamas should get out of here, we have enough problems'

Syrian citizens residing in Lebanon spoke with KAN news correspondents today about the atmosphere in the nation following the dramatic assassination of a senior Hamas official, Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut on Tuesday.

The testimonies, which aired Wednesday on KAN Evening News, come from two Syrian citizens residing in Lebanon.

"The people are very stressed and worried because they don't want war," said one of them. "We want the Hamas operatives to get out of here, we have enough problems."

Another Syrian citizen said that "al-Arouri's assassination in central Beirut was a warning to the Lebanese government because we should have expected it to happen in the south since it is close to the border with Israel. However, from the Lebanese perspective, it is surprising that it happened in central Beirut, and it is an indication of danger."

For months, there have been nearly no large concentrations of people in southern Lebanon, and the area consists mainly of 'ghost towns' and villages after residents fled, following the heating up of the situation at the border. In Beirut, on the other hand, the calm was broken yesterday for the first time with the killing in the Dahiya district.

Meanwhile, Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib, said in an interview today with CNN that he "hopes and prays that there will be no response to the assassination on the part of Hezbollah." According to him, "a regional war is a bad thing for everyone."