Lebanese state media reported on Tuesday evening that an Israeli drone hit Hamas offices in the Da’ahia district of southern Beirut, killing six, including Hamas leader number 2 Saleh al-Arouri and two other Hamas officials.

Israeli intelligence has been trying to kill al-Arouri for years and the United States had a 5 million dollar bounty on his head for “information leading to the identification or location” of Hamas’s No. 2 through its Rewards for Justice program. Hamas claimed that al-Arouri was one of the “architects of the October 7th massacre” and his death is a serious blow to the terror organization. He is the most senior Hamas leader to be eliminated since the start of the war.

Al-Arouri was a deputy political leader for Hamas and one of the founders of al-Qassam Brigades, the so-called military wing of Hamas. The deputy chairman of the Hamas political bureau since 2017, 58-year-old al-Arouri was one of the group’s key political leaders. Accused by Israel and the US of financing and overseeing Hamas’s military operations in Yehudah and Shomron, where he is originally from, Arouri was placed on the US wanted list of terrorists in 2015.

Arouri is believed to have been involved in planning the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers, Naftali Fraenkel, Eyal Yifrach, and Gil-ad Shaar, H’yd, in the summer of 2014, as well as numerous other attacks. He publicly celebrated the murders of the teenagers as a “heroic operation”, according to the US State Department.

He served several prison sentences in Israel, a total of 18 years, and was released in 2010 as a preliminary deal to reach a larger deal for the release of Gilat Shalit. He eventually relocated to Beirut, from where he oversaw Hamas terror activities in the Shomron and helped finance them. He was responsible for forging Hamas’s close ties with Iran, Syria,  and Hezbollah and oversaw a Hamas terror group in southern Lebanon.

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Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah reportedly responded to the elimination by vowing to hit Israel back “hard.” He also canceled a speech scheduled for Wednesday.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the killing, saying that it “aims to draw Lebanon into a new phase of confrontations” with Israel.

On October 25, the Hezbollah-owned Al-Manar TV channel reported that Arouri held a meeting with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and the head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Ziyad al-Nakhalah. Israeli troops blew up his family home on October 31, but local residents said it was unoccupied at the time.

Several days ago, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said: “If you hear that we attacked Beirut, you’ll know that they [Hezbollah] crossed a red line.” [See video below.]

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)