By JNS, JEWISH PRESS, 2 January 2024
Hamas deputy political chief Salah al-Arouri presents an image of Jerusalem to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran, July 22, 2019.
An Israeli drone strike on a Hamas office in Beirut eliminated top terror chief Saleh al-Arouri on Tuesday night, Hamas’s Al-Aqsa Radio announced.
The explosion rocked the south Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, a Hezbollah stronghold. In addition to al-Arouri, at least three other Hamas terrorists were also killed in the blast, Reuters reported.
Al-Arouri, the commander of Hamas operations in Judea and Samaria, as well as the deputy politburo chief under Hamas chairman Ismail Haniyeh, had been based in Lebanon in recent years.
He was one of the top Hamas leaders on Israel’s target list following the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 massacre of at least 1,200 people in the northwestern Negev.
In a statement cited by Saudi Arabia’s Al Arabiya channel on Tuesday, Hamas described al-Arouri as the “architect” of the massacre.
Al-Arouri was informed of the impending invasion half an hour beforehand so he could alert Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, French outlet Le Figaro reported last week.
Also killed in the attack was Abu Amar Samir Fandi, commander of Al-Qassam in Lebanon, and an Al-Qassami commander Azzam al-Iqra.
Local media said Nasrallah canceled a speech scheduled for Wednesday following the reports of al-Arouri’s death.
Israel is anticipating a response to the alleged assassination, according to Hebrew-language media, including possible long-range rocket fire from Lebanon.
During a Nov. 3 speech, Nasrallah threatened the Jewish state, telling Israelis that a preemptive strike against Lebanon would be “the most foolish mistake you make in your entire existence.”
The Hezbollah leader has repeatedly warned that any assassination in Lebanese territory would be met with a “strong reaction.”
Israeli forces raided a home in Samaria belonging to al-Arouri on Oct. 21, detaining more than 20 people, including one of his brothers and nine of his nephews.
Al-Arouri is credited with orchestrating the relationship between Hamas and Iran, and also played a key role in re-establishing the Palestinian terrorist group’s ties with Damascus, which were severed in 2012 during the Syrian civil war.
He was recruited into Hamas in 1985 while studying Sharia law at Hebron University and had served 18 years in Israeli prisons. He was deported to Syria in 2010.
Israel didn’t alert US before killing Hamas deputy chief, sent update during strike — report
This is why the attack was successful.
https://www.memri.org/reports/irgc-spokesman-sharif-asserts-hamass-october-7-massacre-was-one-resistance-axiss-acts
A very important victory. Now let us do the Mullahs, Nasrallah, Sinwar, and the rest of the leaders and planners of this war against Israel, but let us not forget that, as the Nazi war machine was not limited to the German hierarchy in WWII, so too these few leaders of Iran and its Jihadi proxies are not the limit of those guilty for the slaughter of the many dead innocents which lay mutilated and lost across the Gaza envelop. We must have a just end for this war and that includes an accounting of every hand which took part in the slaughter of October 7, be they the leaders which led these Islamist organizations, the rank and file of Hamas, PIJ and Hezbollah, or the savages among the Pals who crossed into the Envelop to happily take part in the horrors on that day. We must not be led to believe today, as was done in 1946, that justice provides only a reckoning for the leadership in this war. War is hell, and I would have hell visited upon every element and member of those who took part scarring our people with delight and dedication. Unlike in 1946, the Jews have their own state, their own govt, and their own armed forces. A fair reckoning is due for the culling of our people which took place on Simchat Torah, and should that debt go unpaid in full, as was done in 1946 to suit the interests of the international community, we Jews will have no one to blame for no exacting the penalty required by this attack but our own weakness and lack of regard for our own people. So, while it is quite a happy moment to see that al-Arouri has been removed from the board, and his fellow leaders are in line to follow his not too subtle dispatch from the realm of the living, we must not be tempted to limit our redress of grievances to these leaders alone, as it is quite certain that they were not alone in perpetrating our slaughter.