EXPLANER
Along with leader Saleh al-Arouri, other senior Hamas members died in Tuesday’s explosion.
Other senior Hamas officials died Tuesday in the drone strike that killed top leader Saleh al-Arouri, undermining the armed group’s military capabilities in Lebanon during Israel’s war on Gaza.
According to Lebanese state media, the strike on a Hamas office in Hezbollah’s stronghold of Dahiyeb, a southern suburb of Beirut, killed seven people. Hamas called al-Arouri’s killing on its official television channel a “cowardly assassination” carried out by Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s adviser, Mark Regev, told US news channel MSNBC that Israel had not taken responsibility for the attack and added: “Whoever did it , it must be clear that this was not an attack on the Lebanese state. »
Here’s what we know about al-Arouri and the six other Hamas officials killed in the drone attack in the Lebanese capital:
Saleh al-Arouri
Al-Arouri, 57, was the deputy head of Hamas’ political bureau. He was also a founding member of Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades.
After spending 15 years in an Israeli prison, al-Arouri was released in 2007 and lived in exile in Lebanon. He was a spokesperson for Hamas and one of the negotiators of a deal that saw 1,027 Palestinian and foreign prisoners exchanged for a single Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, in 2011.
In early December, al-Arouri was the Hamas official who told Tel Aviv Tribune that a prisoner swap under which more prisoners would be released from Gaza would not happen without a ceasefire.
On October 31, Israeli forces destroyed al-Arouri’s house in Aroura, near Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank. Israel blamed him for attacks against Israelis in the region. He had received multiple death threats from Israel before war broke out on October 7.
The United States designated al-Arouri a “global terrorist” in 2015 and issued a $5 million reward for information leading to his identification or location.
Azzam al-Aqra
Al-Aqra, 54, was one of the main commanders of the Qassam Brigades’ military operations outside Gaza. When he was young, he was arrested twice for short periods. In 1992, the year al-Arouri was imprisoned in Israel, he was exiled to Marj al-Zuhur in Lebanon along with 415 other members of Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups.
In 2022, Israeli media claimed that he had plotted to penetrate Israeli communications networks.
He settled in Lebanon, married there and was a key member of the group. He was also known as Abu Abdullah.
Samir Fendi
Samir Fendi was a senior leader of the Qassam Brigades and its commander-in-chief in southern Lebanon. He was also known as Abu Amer.
In July, an Israeli television station reported that the Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, had included him and al-Arouri on a list of assassination targets.
Also killed
The drone strike also killed four other Hamas members: Mahmoud Zaki Shaheen, Mohammed al-Rayes, Mohammed Bashasha and Ahmed Hamoud.