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BEIRUT: The deputy head of Hamas, Saleh al-Arouri, was killed on Tuesday night in an Israeli drone strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs of Dahiyeh, a stronghold of allied Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Lebanon’s state-run news agency and Hamas said. Israeli officials declined to comment.
Saleh al-Arouri was “martyred in a Zionist raid”, Hamas said in a statement, adding that two other commanders from the group’s armed wing, the AlQassam Brigades, were also killed. Lebanon’s state run news agency reported that an “enemy raid” struck the Hamas office in Beirut’s southern suburbs, killing four people, including al-Arouri. Videos from the scene verified by NYT show at least one car engulfed in flames in front of a building as dozens of people gather in the area.
The attack could mark a major escalation in the West Asia conflict. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has vowed to retaliate against any Israeli targeting of Palestinian officials in Lebanon. Najib Mikati, Lebanon’s caretaker PM, blamed Israel for the attack, condemning what he said was an attempt to drag Lebanon into “a new phase” of the conflict.
Al-Arouri, one of the founders of Hamas’s military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, was elected the deputy chairman of Hamas’s political bureau in October 2017. His official role was as the head of Hamas in the West Bank and as the deputy to the group’s leader, Ismail Haniyeh, who heads the Hamas political office in Qatar. But in recent years, al-Arouri spent much of his time in Beirut, where he served as a sort of Hamas ambassador to Hezbollah, according to regional security officials. He was regarded as being close to Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza, and part of efforts by some Hamas leaders to boost the group’s ties with Iran.
Al-Arouri was among the Hamas leaders closest to Iran, and the Iranian news media published photos of him and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after the news of his killing. Israel, which issued a deck of playing cards to soldiers featuring the faces of Hamas officials to help them identify the group’s leaders, made al-Arouri the joker.
Saleh al-Arouri was “martyred in a Zionist raid”, Hamas said in a statement, adding that two other commanders from the group’s armed wing, the AlQassam Brigades, were also killed. Lebanon’s state run news agency reported that an “enemy raid” struck the Hamas office in Beirut’s southern suburbs, killing four people, including al-Arouri. Videos from the scene verified by NYT show at least one car engulfed in flames in front of a building as dozens of people gather in the area.
The attack could mark a major escalation in the West Asia conflict. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has vowed to retaliate against any Israeli targeting of Palestinian officials in Lebanon. Najib Mikati, Lebanon’s caretaker PM, blamed Israel for the attack, condemning what he said was an attempt to drag Lebanon into “a new phase” of the conflict.
Al-Arouri, one of the founders of Hamas’s military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, was elected the deputy chairman of Hamas’s political bureau in October 2017. His official role was as the head of Hamas in the West Bank and as the deputy to the group’s leader, Ismail Haniyeh, who heads the Hamas political office in Qatar. But in recent years, al-Arouri spent much of his time in Beirut, where he served as a sort of Hamas ambassador to Hezbollah, according to regional security officials. He was regarded as being close to Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza, and part of efforts by some Hamas leaders to boost the group’s ties with Iran.
Al-Arouri was among the Hamas leaders closest to Iran, and the Iranian news media published photos of him and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after the news of his killing. Israel, which issued a deck of playing cards to soldiers featuring the faces of Hamas officials to help them identify the group’s leaders, made al-Arouri the joker.
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