The killing of Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri in a reported drone strike in Beirut will be perceived as a warning to Iran, which has armed and financed Hamas, and other Hamas leaders, experts said.
Al-Arouri, the commander of Hamas’ military wing in the West Bank and deputy chairman of the group’s political bureau, was a key figure who had helped repair Hamas’ relations with Iran and had been in Israel’s crosshairs even before the current conflict began. He was killed Tuesday with six other members of the organization after his home in a suburb in southern Beirut was targeted by a drone strike.
“There’s no single cog in this group without whom the whole thing falls apart, but Arouri was a particularly important person, both in terms of overall leadership and his support for violence,” said Matthew Levitt of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank.
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“There’s no single cog in this group without whom the whole thing falls apart, but Arouri was a particularly important person, both in terms of overall leadership and his support for violence,” said Matthew Levitt of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank.
Mark Regev, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told NBC News that Israel has not taken responsibility for the strike.
Al-Arouri was known to be close with the leadership in Tehran,” said Colin Clarke, the director of research at the Soufan Center, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization focusing on global security issues.
In a 2003 U.S. federal racketeering case, the Justice Department named al-Arouri as an unindicted co-conspirator and described him as a senior Hamas figure who had access to tens of thousands of dollars for terrorist operations.
At the time, the State Department said he had reportedly worked with Qassem Soleimani, who was then the leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force.
Al-Arouri also announced in 2014 that Hamas claimed responsibility for an attack involving the kidnappings and killings of three Israeli teenagers, including a dual U.S.-Israel citizen, Naftali Fraenkel, according to the State Department.
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