Alwaght- On Tuesday, the Israeli regime targeted Hamas headquarters in southern Beirut, assassinating senior Hamas commander Saleh al-Arouri and a number of others.
The Israelis who over the past years have had a solid strategy to eliminate the influential figures of the Axis of Resistance this time succeeded to realize their sinister plans after weeks of threatening to assassinate Hamas and Islamic Jihad officials.
Al-Arouri, an influential figure in Hamas security circle
Saleh Mohammad Suleiman Al-Aroori was born in 1966 in the town of Arura near Ramallah in the West Bank. He attended elementary school there and graduated from high school in 1984.
In 1992, he entered Hebron University in the southern West Bank, where he took a bachelor’s degree in Islamic law.
He joined the Muslim Brotherhood movement at a young age and led the ‘Islamic Student Activity’ at Hebron University in 1985.
Months after the establishment of Hamas in 1987, he joined this movement. Al-Arouri was one of the founders of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military branch of Hamas, and between 1991 and 1992, he established the initial nucleus of the movement’s military wing in the West Bank.
Although there were rarely reports of martyr al-Arouri in the media, he was a key figure in the movement known by many as a military strategist and organizer of the security and military wing of, indeed along with Yahya Sinwar.
18 years in Israeli prisons
All officials of Hamas leadership have undergone the plight of Israeli prisoners, and al-Arouri was no exception.
In 1992, the Israeli army arrested al-Arouri and sentenced him to 15 years in prison on the charge of forming the initial nucleus of al-Qassam Brigades in the West Bank.
Al-Arouri was released in 2007, but three months later, Israel detained him again for 3 years, and in 2010, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled to release him and send him into exile.
He was exiled to Syria and remained there for three years, and then, as the crisis in that country erupted in later 2011, he moved to Turkey and moved between several countries, including Qatar and Malaysia, and finally settled ink southern Lebanon.
After prison, he was elected as a member of the movement’s political office.
This Hamas commander was elected as member of Hamas political office from 2010 to 2017. Then he was picked deputy chief of the office. He was re-elected for the post in July 2023, in addition to being elected chief of the movement in the West Bank.
Al-Arouri was a member of Hamas negotiation team to finalize an Egyptian-mediated prisoner swap deal, dubbed “loyalty to the free”, with Israeli regime in 2011. Under the deal, Israeli prisoner Gilad Shalit, a solider, was traded for 1027 Palestinians.
Al-Arouri was known in Hamas as one of the most prominent advocates of reconciliation of the rival Palestinian factions and had good relations with the Fatah movement led by Mahmoud Abbas.
Since he lived in Lebanon in recent years and interacted with senior leaders of Hezbollah, Western media claimed that his top task in Lebanon was to communicate with Iran, a staunch backer of Palestinian resistance.
Danny Danon, a member of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, claimed in a conversation with USA Today that “we have knowledge of collaboration between Tehran, Beirut and Gaza. We are worried that the technology came from Tehran to Beirut and to Gaza.”
Al-Arouri, Israel’s nightmare
Al-Arouri has always been one of the resistance figures wanted by the Israeli regime, because he is mentioned as the architect of the attacks in the West Bank against soldiers and settlers and the launch of rockets from Gaza and Lebanon. The Israeli media label him the nightmare of Tel Aviv and the architect of Hamas’ relations with Iran and Hezbollah.
Tel Aviv recognizes him as one of the architects of al-Qassam Brigades. Israel once accused him of kidnapping three settlers and razed his home to ground.
Tel Aviv accused him of being behind the kidnapping and killing of three young Israelis in the West Bank in 2014, which led to a 51-day war in Gaza that left 2,100 Palestinians dead and more than 10,000 wounded.
On April 22, 2023, Israel’s Channel 12 reported that Tel Aviv decided to bring back to the table project of assassination of senior Palestinian resistance leaders after so-called independence day with the aim of re-balancing the military deterrence even if it inflamed a big tension with the Palestinians. The move would cover all fronts including Gaza, Syria, and Lebanon, the channel added. The hit list included al-Arouri, Sinwar, Akram al-Ajouri, Marwan Issa, and other leaders.
Eitan Dangote, a retired officer who was adviser to three Israeli security ministers, has been calling for al-Arouri’s assassination for several years.
“He is the most dangerous and important person in Hamas today. He is a deadly man and his aim is to kill more Israelis,” Dangote claimed.
Oliver Levy, an expert of Palestinian affairs in KAN news network recently said that “it is important to know that al-Arouri is a strategist and can be described as the mastermind of Hamas in everything related to the development of the movement’s military wing outside of Gaza. Al-Arouri is recognized by security institutions of Israel and other intelligence organizations in the world as the one of the central characters [of Hamas].”
A few months ago, when the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to assassinate al-Arouri, the Hamas official in an interview with Al-Mayadeen news network said that these threats will not change his path even a bit. Immediately, a smiling picture of the man with his military uniform and his rifle in front of him was published, sending the message to the Israelis that the Palestinians are not afraid of martyrdom and are ready for it at any moment.
Since the Israelis consider him the founder of al-Qassam Brigades in the West Bank, they associate any attacks on Israeli settlers there with him. The West Bank is the place where resistance fighters carried out a slew of attacks over the past 18 months, killing over 50 Israeli settlers as Israeli officials confirm. That is why Israeli officials rejoiced at his assassination.
Despite the fact that many experts consider Sinwar, the political head of Hamas in Gaza, and Muhammad al-Deif, the commander of al-Qassam Brigades, as the masterminds of game-changing October 7 operation, the Israeli authorities and media have described the role of al-Arouri in this operation as unique and pivotal and called him the main designer of the operation that dealt a heavy blow to the Israeli occupation.
On October 25, Yedioth Ahronoth reported that 6 Hamas leaders are put on the hit list. The newspaper named him the second top man of Hamas and responsible for the military activities of the movement’s West Bank arm.
A footage released after October 7 attack showed al-Arouri along with other Hamas officials including Ismail Haniyeh performing a thanksgiving prostration, or sujud al-shukr in Arabic.
A Hamas official said that al-Arouri was at the heart of the talks in the current war in Gaza and the release of prisoners with the mediation of Qatar and Egypt, and was supposed to travel to Egypt and Qatar next week for further consultation concerning Hamas demands.
He was not only a nightmare for Israeli regime, but also a dangerous commander for the US that tried to eliminate him by any means.
In 2003, the US Justice Department categorized him as a plotter involved in a terrorism funding case for alleged contacts with three Hamas activists in Chicago. In 2015, the US Department of Treasury issued sanctions against him as a “global terrorist”, claiming that al-Arouri was the main funder and facilitator of Hamas military nuclei. In the indictment, he was introduced as a high-ranking Hamas military commander who received tens of thousands of dollars in exchange for terrorist activities, including the purchase of weapons.
In 2018, Washington offered a $5 million reward for information on al-Arouri, Hezbollah officials, and al-Qassam commanders.
The Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security Michael T. Evanoff said at the time that al-Arouri is living freely in Lebanon, where he is reportedly working with the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force and his operations lead to killing of Israelis having US citizenship.
According to the USA Today that cited former American and Israeli security officials, al-Arouri for years masterminded Hamas operations in Israeli-blockaded regions like the West Bank in addition to his task in al-Qassam.
Since resistance leaders have repeatedly warned that they will give a crushing response if Israel re-embraces assassination policy, al-Arouri assassination can direct the Gaza war to a different path. Citing informed sources, Al-Arabiya reported that Hamas informed the mediators that it halted talks on ceasefire and prisoner swap deal and vowed revenge.
Israeli media earlier called al-Arouri the architect of ‘unity of fronts’ strategy which suggests that war with Israel can trigger response from various fronts. They reported that there is an understanding in Israel that al-Arouri assassination can trigger war on several fronts. Since the crime was committed on Lebanese soil, experts suggest, Hezbollah would respond and war scope is open to an expansion.
Tel Aviv’s hardliners think that they will undermine Hamas with al-Arouri assassination and drive away the movement’s shadow of threats from the occupied territories, but experience has shown that resistance groups are not person-dependent to collapse in the absence of their heads, rather, the successors utilize experiences of their former commanders and mix them with innovations, grow stronger day by day, and deal heavy blows to their Israeli enemy.
