Israel killed Deputy Hamas chief Saleh al-Arouri in the suburbs of Beirut in a drone attack on Tuesday evening, according to media reports that were not confirmed by the Israeli government.
02 January 2024, Lebanon, Beirut: Lebanese firefighters gather around a building targeted in a blast, that resulted in killing Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri an six other people. The cause was initially unclear but reports quickly began to circulate suspecting that it could have been a targeted killing on behalf of Israel. Photo: Stringer/dpa (Photo by Stringer/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Reuters reported:
Arouri was deputy head of Hamas’s politburo and a founder of its military wing, the Qassam Brigades, which carried out a deadly assault in Israeli territory on Oct. 7.
He had spent time recently in both Lebanon and Qatar, which has mediated talks between Hamas and Israel including on hostages Hamas took in its Oct. 7 assault. The U.S., which brands Hamas a terrorist group, had last year offered $5 million for information on Arouri.
Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa radio confirmed Arouri’s killing. Hamas politburo member Izzat al-Sharq called it a “cowardly assassination.”
There were other casualties, apparently, but they were not identified. The drone may have targeted a meeting of terrorist officials.
Iran condemned the attack, as did the Lebanese government and the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. Palestinians in the West Bank also protested.
HEBRON, WEST BANK – JANUARY 02: People chant slogans against Israel during the protest against Israeli airstrike on Lebanon, in which Deputy Chairman of the Political Bureau of Hamas Saleh Al-Arouri was killed in Hebron, West Bank on January 02, 2024. (Photo by Mamoun Wazwaz/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Israeli officials have said repeatedly in recent weeks that every single Hamas leader, and every member of the organization involved in the October 7 terror attack against Israel, was marked for death.
The only exception, reportedly, are those Hamas officials currently in Doha, the capital of Qatar, which is currently trying to mediate talks between Hamas and Israel on further trades of Israeli hostages for Palestinian terror convicts.
The Wall Street Journal reported in October that Beirut was a key site for meetings between Iranian officials and Hamas officials, including meetings on the October 7 terror attack, though it has not been confirmed that Iran approved that attack.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the 2021 e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now updated with a new foreword. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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