Sébastien Le Belzic // Credits: AHMED GAMIL / ANADOLU AGENCY / ANADOLU VIA AFP
– Palestinian Hamas number two, Saleh al-Arouri, was killed in an Israeli strike on Lebanon on Tuesday. The man was killed along with his bodyguards in an attack targeting the Hamas office in the suburbs of Beirut, stronghold of pro-Iranian Hezbollah.
Israel neutralizes one of the figures of Hamas. Palestinian Hamas number two, Saleh al-Arouri, was killed in an Israeli strike on Lebanon on Tuesday. He was one of the priority targets of the Jewish state. Saleh al-Arouri had been based in Lebanon since 2018 where he held the position of privileged interlocutor for the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, whom he was due to meet again this Wednesday. For several years, he had been the bridge between the two terrorist groups.
During his life, Saleh al-Arouri was imprisoned twice in Israel where he spent 15 years in the Jewish state’s jails before being released in 2010. After his release, he took over as director of the military wing of Hamas in the West Bank. As a member of Hamas, he is said to have sponsored several military operations against Israel. In addition, he would be one of the main architects of the massacres of October 7.
A hard blow for Hamas
The disappearance of Arouri is therefore a hard blow for Hamas, which nevertheless confirmed that this death would not make it bend. But the death of the terrorist group’s number two also risks complicating the release of Israeli hostages for whom Arouri was one of the main negotiators for Hamas. Just a month ago, he declared that these hostages would remain prisoners until the end of hostilities.