Saleh Al-Arouri
AL-ARURI, Salih a.k.a. AL-ARORI, Salih; a.k.a. AL-AROURI, Salah; a.k.a. AL-AROURI, Saleh; a.k.a. AL-AROURI, Saleh Muhammad Suleiman; a.k.a. AL-ARURI, Salah; a.k.a. AL-ARURI, Saleh; a.k.a. AL-ARURI, Salih Muhammad Sulayman; a.k.a. SULAYMAN, Salih Muhammad; a.k.a. MUHAMMAD, Abu; a.k.a. SULAIMAN, Salih Dar; a.k.a. SULEIMAN, Salih
The Palestinian Hamas movement confirmed the assassination of Palestinian leader Saleh Al-Arouri on 02 January 2023 in the explosion that occurred in the Al-Musharafiyeh area in the southern suburb of Beirut. Current and former intelligence officials in the United States and Israel, as well as government and judicial documents, said that Al-Arouri was considered a strategic link between three parties: Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran. Udi Levy, who worked for more than 30 years in Israeli intelligence, says, “Most of the money that goes to Hamas comes from Iran, and the Iranian man inside Hamas is Al-Arouri.”
In its statement Hamas described Al-Arouri “the chief of staff of the resistance in the West Bank and Gaza and the architect of the Al-Aqsa flood,” in reference to Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7. He directly contributed to the establishment of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas movement. Al-Arouri worked as a key aide to Ismail Haniyeh, one of several Hamas leaders residing in Qatar, especially regarding political communication operations between the movement, Iran, and Hezbollah.
Saleh Al-Arouri, who was 57 years old, had been the deputy head of the political bureau of Hamas since 2017, and he is also one of the main political figures in the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement “Hamas”. Al-Arouri's role in the Hamas movement had become more prominent than simply holding the position of deputy head of the movement's political bureau. In addition to continuing to play a role in the Qassam Brigades, Al-Arouri spent years helping rebuild Hamas' operations in other Palestinian territories besieged by Israel, such as the West Bank
Al-Aqsa TV reported in an urgent announcement: “The deputy head of Hamas’s political bureau, Sheikh Mujahid Commander Saleh Al-Arouri, was martyred in a treacherous Zionist raid in Beirut along with two Qassam leaders in Beirut.” Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV announced the killing of the two commanders in the Al-Qassam Brigades, Samir Fendi Abu Amer and Azzam Al-Aqra' Abu Ammar, in the same attack.
The Israeli army said that it was prepared for “all scenarios” after Al-Arouri was killed in a strike that targeted an office of the Palestinian movement in the southern suburb of Beirut, which Lebanese security officials attributed to Israel. Army spokesman Daniel Hagari stated in a press conference: “(The army) is on alert (...) in defense and attack. We are prepared for all scenarios,” without commenting directly on Al-Arouri’s killing.
The American newspaper "USA Today" revealed that Israel launched an international manhunt to target the prominent leader of the Hamas movement, Saleh Al-Arouri, who was believed to have had prior knowledge of the details of the attack launched by the movement on 07 October 2023, as well as because he is a link between the movement on the one hand. Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah on the other hand, according to the newspaper.
The newspaper said that Al-Arouri, who held the position of deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, had appeared in an interview with a Lebanese channel several weeks before the attack, in which he spoke that Hamas was preparing for an all-out war, indicating that the movement was “closely discussing the possibilities of this war with all Interested parties".
His statements were considered a warning, according to the newspaper, which indicated that Al-Arouri also spoke at the time about the existence of Israeli plans to carry out liquidations of Hamas leaders, warning of the outbreak of a regional war if that happened. Although the operations that Al-Arouri claimed that Israel was planning did not see the light of day, Hamas, in return, launched its surprise attack on Israeli cities and towns, killing about 1,400 people, most of them civilians.
Al-Arouri is considered one of the most prominent leaders of Hamas, and his name has always been mentioned since the bloody October 7 attack, as one of the planners and coordinators. Al-Arouri was one of the performers of the “Prostration of Thanks” along with other leaders, most notably Ismail Haniyeh, according to a video recording published by those close to Hamas, upon the announcement of the attack on Israel that resulted in the killing of 1,200 people, most of them civilians and including women and children.
The newspaper reported that the attack was much larger than Hamas could have planned alone, after it included breaching the border fence separating the Gaza Strip, using drones and gliders, and precise targeting of military observation, communications and intelligence centres, all of which carried the fingerprints of external supporting parties.
Al-Arouri was born 19 August 1966 in the village of Aroura, Ramallah District, West Bank. Al-Arouri became a fixture in pro-Palestinian activism in the mid-1980s at Hebron University, where he studied Islamic law. Security officials in Israel and the United States say that Al-Arouri joined Hamas shortly after its formation in late 1987 at the beginning of the “first Palestinian intifada.” They add that the man quickly graduated from being the leader of a youth organization on campus to founding the Al-Qassam Brigades.
Al-Arouri established the military apparatus of the Hamas movement in the West Bank in 1991, which contributed to the actual launch of the Al-Qassam Brigades in the West Bank in 1992.By the early 1990s, the Al-Qassam Brigades began launching attacks against Israel in the Palestinian territories and inside Israel, which included large-scale bombings and rocket attacks.
Israeli authorities detained and imprisoned Al-Arouri three times, and spent several years in Israeli prisons between 1995 and 2010, although he continued his Hamas activity even while in an Israeli prison in Ashkelon.
On 20 August 2004 three men associated with the foreign terrorist organization Hamas were indicted by a federal grand jury in Chicago for allegedly participating in a 15-year racketeering conspiracy in the United States and abroad to illegally finance terrorist activities in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, including providing money for the purchase of weapons, the Justice Department announced. All three defendants allegedly used bank accounts in the United States to launder millions of dollars for disbursement to support Hamas,
The indictment, which for the first time identifies Hamas as a criminal enterprise, alleges that the affairs of the enterprise were committed through multiple acts of conspiracy to commit and solicitation of first degree murder, conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim or injure persons in a foreign country, money laundering and attempt and conspiracy to do so, obstruction of justice, providing material support or resources to designated foreign terrorist organizations, hostage taking, forgery or false use of a passport, structuring financial transactions and travel in aid of racketeering.
The high-ranking Hamas leaders named in the indictment as co-conspirators are: Khalid Mish’al, Abdel Aziz Al-Rantisi (deceased), Imad Al-Alami, Mohammed Qassem Sawalha, Adel Ahmed Awadallah (deceased), Salah Al-Arouri, Sheik Jamil Hamami, Hassan Salameh, Yihye Ayash, and Ismael Selim Elbarasse.
In September 1992, Salah traveled from Chicago to the West Bank, where he met with Al-Arouri, a Hamas member headquartered at Hebron University in the West Bank, who informed Salah that Hamas needed money to purchase weapons to carry out terrorist activities. Salah agreed to provide Al-Arouri money for the purchase of weapons and other military supplies and, later, provided Al-Arouri at least approximately $50,000 for these purposes. Salah allegedly provided the money to Al-Arouri by writing 10 checks, each for $5,000, from one of his Chicago bank accounts and cashing them in Israel in September 1992.
Arouri was arrested in 2007, but was released in 2010 when Israel released more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the release of a single Israeli soldier captured by Hamas in 2006. After his release, Al-Arouri was forced to leave Gaza and moved to the Syrian capital, Damascus, to join the Hamas leadership in exile there. With the outbreak of the civil war in Syria in 2012, Al-Arouri began moving again, spending some time in Turkey.
Al-Arouri then moved to Lebanon, where he played an effective role in healing the rift that marred relations between Hamas and Iran against the backdrop of the civil war in Syria. He also began to establish closer relations with Hezbollah from its new base of operations in Lebanon. The newspaper also confirms that Al-Arouri had a relationship and attended meetings with Saeed Izadi, head of the “Palestine Branch” in the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
Aruri funded and directed Hamas military operations in the West Bank and had been linked to several terrorist attacks, hijackings, and kidnappings. In 2014, al-Aruri announced Hamas’s responsibility for the June 12, 2014 terrorist attack that kidnapped and killed three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank, including dual U.S. –Israeli citizen Naftali Fraenkel. He publicly praised the murders as a “heroic operation.” According to local media, citing Israeli intelligence, he was involved in planning to kidnap and kill three Israeli teenagers in the occupied West Bank during the summer of 2014. At the end of the 2014 war between Hamas and Israel, Saleh al-Arouri, got up in front of 1,000 people in Istanbul and announced that Hamas had in fact planned and executed the kidnapping and murder of the three teens in Israel that had sparked the war. And he was received with thunderous applause.
In September 2015, the U.S. Department of the Treasury designated al-Aruri as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) pursuant to Executive Order 13224. As a result of this designation, among other consequences, all property and interests in property of al-Aruri that are subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in any transactions with al-Aruri. In addition, it is a crime to knowingly provide, or attempt or conspire to provide material support or resources to Hamas, a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.
In late 2017, the Hamas movement announced the election of Al-Arouri as deputy head of the political bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Ismail Haniyeh, during the movement’s Shura Council.
On 13 November 2018 The U.S. Department of State’s Rewards for Justice Program offered rewards of up to $5 million each for information leading to the identification or location of Hamas leader Salih al-Aruri. Salih al-Aruri was a deputy of the political bureau of the terrorist organization Hamas and one of the founders of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing.
Despite his being placed on the US sanctions list linked to terrorism and the US State Department offering a reward of five million dollars for anyone who provides information leading to his whereabouts. Al-Arouri was living freely in Lebanon. He continued to move in the region, including inside and outside Iran, and cooperated with terrorist figures, including the commander of the Quds Force in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Qassem Soleimani, before he was killed in a US air strike in early 2020.
The newspaper said, “Al-Arouri helped build and lead a new Hamas alliance with Iran and Hezbollah, which alarmed Israel so much that it requested emergency assistance from the United Nations Security Council in 2017 and again in 2018, to obstruct his efforts.”
Hamas had emerged as the only viable alternative to Mahmoud Abbas by 2023. And the group continued to expand its foothold in the West Bank. The man responsible for much of this is Saleh Arouri. The West Bank military commander split his time between Turkey, Qatar, and Lebanon. However, Iran was the key to the terrorist infrastructure he had created in the West Bank. The longer Abbas remained president, and the more Arouri can expand his terrorist network in the West Bank, the worse the outlook got.
The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades launched on the morning of Saturday, October 7, a large-scale military operation against Israel, called “Al-Aqsa Flood”. Saleh Al-Arouri confirmed that Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, which was initiated by the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, came in anticipation of an attack that Israel intended to launch on the Gaza Strip immediately after the end of the Jewish holidays. He said that the defensive plan for the operation was stronger than the offensive plan that stunned Israel and surprised the world.
Al-Arouri revealed - in contact with Al Jazeera 13 October 2023 - that the Al-Aqsa Flood Plan was based on 122 Al-Qassam members storming the Gaza Strip, and attacking the “Gaza Division” responsible for the siege of the Gaza Strip and the assassinations and murders carried out against Palestinians in the Strip.
Although the plan expected that "the battles with the Gaza Division would continue for long hours, the Qassam fighters were surprised when the entire division collapsed within a few short hours, and they were able to easily reach its command center, the airport, the kibbutzim, and the nearby settlements," after the surviving Israeli soldiers fled, while the Israeli soldiers were killed. Many of them were captured.
The Hamas official stressed that the Qassam fighters were instructed from the beginning to adhere to the instructions of the Islamic religion in wars, which are not to kill civilians, women, children and the elderly, not to harm people’s civil interests, and to be content only with fighting soldiers and militants.
But what happened, according to Al-Arouri, was that when some of the people of the Gaza Strip heard of the collapse of the border with the Gaza envelope, they rushed to enter the envelope, and some chaos occurred there, while some Qassam fighters were forced to clash with some security guards and gunmen in the settlements, which led to civilian deaths.
He stressed that the Hamas movement "cannot harm civilians or prisoners and acts in accordance with international laws of war," and that the West, which accuses the Palestinian resistance of committing crimes against humanity, ignores that the war launched by Israel against them was based on targeting civilians, stressing that the Palestinians are fighting to ensure that... The world had the right to live on the lands of their country like the rest of the peoples of the world.
Al-Arouri was surprised by the demand of America and Western countries for their citizens to be among the prisoners. He said that Al-Qassam captured Israeli soldiers wearing Israeli military uniforms and carrying weapons to kill Palestinians. He added, “How can it be fair if it turns out that these soldiers are Americans, French, and Italian?” He denounced the West’s accusation that Hamas is “ISIS.”
Al-Arouri said in August 2023: “I am waiting for martyrdom and I feel that my current situation is long,” referring to Israeli threats to eliminate Hamas leaders, whether in Gaza or abroad. Israel accused Al-Arouri of supervising and directing Hamas attacks in the Israeli-occupied West Bank in support of militants facing the devastating Israeli air and ground offensive in Gaza.
On 21 October 2023, Aroura was raided, where Israeli forces arrested about twenty people, including Saleh al-Arouri’s brother and nine of his nephews. On October 25, Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV channel reported on a meeting between Hassan Nasrallah, Islamic Jihad leader Ziad al-Nakhalah, and Saleh al-Arouri. On October 31, the Israeli army demolished with explosives Al-Arouri's home in Aroura, in the occupied West Bank.
Lebanese media announced 02 January 2023 the killing of Palestinian leader Saleh Al-Arouri in the explosion that occurred in the Al-Musharafiyeh area in the southern suburb of Beirut. The Lebanese News Agency confirmed that an Israeli drone targeted a Hamas office in Mushrifiyah, south of Beirut, resulting in a number of deaths and injuries. According to the official National News Agency in Lebanon, the Israeli bombing targeted an office of the Hamas movement while a meeting of Palestinian leaders was being held. The agency counted the killing of six people, in addition to the wounding of others. According to Lebanese security sources, more than one missile was fired at a target in the southern suburb of Beirut.
Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas political bureau, said that the assassination of Al-Arouri was a “full-fledged terrorist act,” a violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty, and an expansion of Israeli hostilities against the Palestinians. In a television speech, Haniyeh mourned Al-Arouri and the two commanders of the Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing, Samir Fendi Abu Amer and Azzam Al-Aqra’ Abu Ammar.
Haniyeh stressed that the Hamas movement “will never be defeated,” and said, “A movement that presents its leaders and founders as martyrs for the dignity of our people and our nation will never be defeated, and these attacks increase it in strength, solidity, and unyielding determination. This is the history of the resistance and the movement after the assassination of its leaders, that it is stronger and more determined.”
Izzat al-Rishq, a member of the Hamas political bureau, described the operation as "a cowardly assassination carried out by the Zionist occupation against the leaders and symbols of our Palestinian people." He stressed that the assassination of Al-Arouri "will not undermine the continuation of the resistance."
The Al-Qassam Brigades launched a batch of rockets from the Gaza Strip towards Tel Aviv after the announcement of Al-Arouri’s death, according to a Hamas source who also said: “The occupation is aware that the response of Al-Qassam and the resistance is coming on the scale of the assassination of the senior leader Saleh Al-Arouri.”
About a hundred Palestinians gathered in the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, carrying Palestinian flags and chanting: “Bullet... with a bullet and fire with fire, with God’s help we will take revenge.” The Fatah movement - Ramallah Region announced that Wednesday “a general and comprehensive strike in the Ramallah and Al-Bireh governorates in response to the assassination” of Al-Arouri in Beirut.
For its part, the Islamic Jihad Movement mourned "the great national leader Sheikh Saleh Al-Arouri and his brothers who were martyrs following a cowardly and treacherous assassination carried out by the Zionist enemy in the southern suburb of Beirut." The movement said that the Israeli strike is “an attempt by the Zionist enemy to expand the scope of the conflict and drag the entire region into war to escape the military field failure in the Gaza Strip and the political impasse that the entity’s government is experiencing.”
The Deputy Secretary-General of the Islamic Jihad Movement, Muhammad al-Hindi, also condemned the assassination, saying that this operation transformed Al-Arouri "from a leader in Hamas into a great symbol of our people and our nation." He added: "The enemy is delusional if he believes for a moment that assassinating the leaders of the resistance can weaken us. On the contrary, this pure blood will increase the strength and victory of the resistance."
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