Senior Hamas official Saleh Al-Arouri was among at least six people killed on Tuesday night in a suspected Israeli drone strike in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh.
Arouri, 57, was a member of the militant group’s politburo and one of the founders of its military wing, the Qassam Brigades. Last year the US offered a $5 million reward for information about him. A Lebanese security source told Arab News the drone strike had targeted a three-storey building in the Haret Hreik neighborhood that had Hamas offices on the second and third floors. “There is no building built above it, so it was easy to target from the air,” the source said.
Leaders of Hamas’ armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades, Samir Findi Abu Amer and Azzam Al-Aqraa Abu Ammar, were also killed in the Israeli strike, Hamas’s Al-Aqsa TV channel said on Telegram.
A security cordon was set up around the scene of the attack, while ambulances rushed to transport the injured to hospital.
After the blast firefighters and paramedics gathered around the building, which had a gaping hole in the third floor. Limbs and other pieces of flesh were visible on the roadside.
After the attack, Israel’s army said its forces were “in a high state of readiness for any scenario.”
“The IDF is at a very high level of readiness, in all arenas, in defense and offense. We are in a high state of readiness for any scenario,” Israel Defense Forces Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said at a press conference.
“The most important thing to say tonight is that we are focused and remain focused on fighting Hamas,” Hagari said.
كاميرا مراقبة توثق الأصوات التي سمعت لحظة تنفيذ المسيّرة الإسرائيلية عملية الاغتيال لـ #صالح_العاروري في الضاحية الجنوبية لـ #بيروت#فلسطين#لبنان#الحدث pic.twitter.com/pxu3NNNJ1A
— ا لـحـدث (@AlHadath) January 2, 2024
A US defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive operations, said the Israel Defense Forces was responsible for the strike targeting Al-Arouri and that an assessment of whether he had been killed was ongoing, the Washington Post reported.
Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the attack as a “new Israeli crime” and said it was an attempt to pull Lebanon into the Gaza war. The Israeli military refused to comment, but Mark Regev, an adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said: “Whoever did it, it must be clear: this was not an attack on the Lebanese state. Whoever did this carried out a surgical strike against the Hamas leadership.”
Dahiyeh, where the attack took place, is a Hezbollah stronghold. Palestinian political analyst Hisham Debsi said Arouri had been “living in Lebanon for some time under the protection of Hezbollah, and launched joint operations against Israel from Beirut.”
His death was “a challenge to Hezbollah and puts the party in a dilemma,” Debsi said. “The party’s security has been violated, despite all the measures taken, it is no longer an impregnable fortress and Israel can attack whoever it wants.”
Who was Hamas’ Saleh Al-Arouri?
One of Hamas’ most senior officials was killed on Tuesday night when an Israeli drone reportedly targeted the militant group’s offices in the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut.
Saleh Al-Arouri, deputy head of Hamas’ political bureau, was a prominent name on Israel’s hit list and the highest-ranking member of the group to have been killed so far.
As well as being deputy to Ismail Haniyeh since 2017, Al-Arouri was a founding commander of Hamas’ military wing, Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
الله يرحمك يا شيخنا #صالح_العاروري
— صالح الجعفراوي salh_aljtarwi (@salhalgtroy2) January 2, 2024
فديو قصير يحكي سيرة شهيدنا القائد pic.twitter.com/siITpDCj7J
He was also on the US Treasury’s sanctions list for allegedly being a financier for the group and facilitating weapon transfers since 1987 when Hamas was formed during the first Palestinian uprising against Israel.
The US Department of State’s Rewards for Justice program offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest.
Al-Arouri’s death came a day before Iran commemorates the anniversary of losing its top general, Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike near Baghdad International Airport on Jan. 3, 2020.
Al-Arouri had been a member of Hamas’ Politburo since 2010 but rose to prominence in August 2014 when he told a conference in Turkiye that the militant group was responsible for the abduction and killing of three Israeli teenagers from a West Bank settlement.
Israel and the US also believe he was involved in the funding and training of the Hamas fighters who carried out the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which saw 1,200 people killed and 240 taken hostage.
Israel responded by launching a military campaign against the Gaza Strip, which has so far seen the deaths of at least 22,000 Palestinians.
In October, Al-Arouri’s family home in the West Bank town of Aroura, near Ramallah, was demolished by the Israeli army. The demolition order was signed by Yehuda Fox, head of the Israel Defense Force Central Command.
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