Hamas television on Tuesday announced the "assassination" by Israel of the militant group's deputy head in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital Beirut.

Saleh al-Aruri was killed in a "treacherous Zionist strike", Hamas said on its official channel.

A high-level security official in Beirut told AFP that Aruri was killed in the Israeli strike along with his bodyguards in the Lebanese capital's southern suburbs, which is a stronghold of Hamas ally Hezbollah. (AFP)