TEHRAN, Jan. 03 (MNA) – UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sees the assassination of Saleh al-Arouri, a senior Hamas leader, in an Israeli strike in Beirut as a worrying development, said a UN spokesperson on Tuesday.

"Obviously, the developments are extremely worrying. And I think this just really highlights what the secretary-general had just said about the dangers of the spillover of this conflict in the wider region," Xinhua reported citing Florencia Soto Nino, associate spokesperson for Guterres.

"The secretary-general urges all parties to exercise maximum restraint and take urgent steps to de-escalate tensions in the region," she said.

Guterres has mentioned that this continued fighting has the risk of a great miscalculation by multiple actors, she said.

She said the world body did not have all the details of the attack.

Al-Arouri was martyred as a result of an explosion in a building in al-Musharrafieh district in southern Beirut, Lebanon.

Later, Hamas confirmed that al-Arouri was killed in Israel’s terror attack, which also killed several of his companions.

AMK/PR