Saleh al-Arouri, the deputy political head of Hamas and a founder of the group’s military wing, was reportedly killed in an Israeli drone strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Tuesday.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Arouri was among at least five other people who were killed in the drone strike. During an Islamic Regime cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Iranian Mohammad Reza Ashtiani argued that the United States “disturbed the regional balance” in the Middle East.
“We will see solidarity against American policies with such actions in the region,” the defense minister said. “The consequences of this terror will be felt by [the US].”
Per the European Council of Foreign Relations, Arouri was born in 1966 in the West Bank town of Arouri had been a member of Hamas’s Politburo since 2010 and its deputy chairman since October 2017. Although he was based in Lebanon, Arouri was believed to be the group’s leader in the West Bank and had close ties to Hamas’s military wing — the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
Arouri is attributed to leading successive reconciliation talks with Fatah on Hamas’ behalf and helped negotiate the release of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011 in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
Arouri had been a member of Hamas in 1987 and led the Islamic student movement as well as launching Hamas’s military wing in the West Bank. Israel had previously detained him during several periods of time, including between 1985-1992 and 1992-2007. In 2010, Israel deported him from Israel to Syria, where he lived for three years before moving to Turkey and later to Lebanon.
In light of Arouri’s death, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) warned Israel and the US of an increase in Palestinian terror in the West Bank.
“The brutal action of the Zionist regime in the drone attack on south Beirut, which violated Lebanon’s territorial sovereignty and led to the martyrdom of Saleh al-Arouri…showed the continuation of madness,” a statement attributed to the IRGC read. “The brutality and war-mongering lust is the evil strategy of the Zionists under the support of the terrorist government of the United States of America.”
The IGRC further contended that Palestinian terrorists will “enter the field of Jihad with more determination…everywhere in this land, especially the West Bank.”
In a post on X Wednesday morning, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian deemed Arouri’s killing as a “terrorist act that proves that Israel has not achieved its goals in Gaza despite America’s support.”
IRAN’S FOREIGN MINISTER HOSSEIN AMIR-ABDOLLAHIAN: 🇮🇷 #IRAN
”The killing of Saleh al-Arouri was a terrorist act that proves that Israel has not achieved its goals in Gaza despite America’s support” pic.twitter.com/SisxUssfWh
— WORLD AT WAR (@World_At_War_6) January 3, 2024
“Such a cowardly terrorist operation proves that the Zionist regime has not achieved any of its goals after weeks of war crimes, genocide, and destruction in Gaza and the West Bank of Palestine, despite the direct support of the White House,” he continued.
Photo Courtesy: @Getty Images/Marwan Tahtah / Stringer
Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for Christian Headlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.
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