Israel-Hamas war: Strike in Beirut kills Hamas deputy leader

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 Lebanese media has said Hamas official Saleh Arouri was among those killed when an Israeli drone hit a Hamas office in Beirut. Meanwhile, Syria said a different Israeli airstrike caused damage near Damascus.

Beirut blast allegedly targeted a Hamas office in the Lebanese capital

Counterterrorism expert: Arouri involved in Hamas 'from the beginning'

Hans-Jakob Schindler, senior director at the Counterterrorism Project NGO, spoke to DW about Saleh Arouri, a Hamas deputy leader who was killed in Lebanese capital Beirut.

Schindler said that Arouri was there "right from the beginning," having been radicalized in the 1980s, while studying in the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank. He went on to co-found Hamas' military wing, the Qassam Brigades in 1988 and form a "personal relationship" with Yahya Sinwa, who leads Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Arouri was arrested by Israel multiple times and then released in 2010, then moved to Syria. After leaving Syria in 2012, he went to Turkey, then to Qatar in 2015, and then to Lebanon in 2017.

The Hamas official had served as the "quasi Hamas ambassador to Hezbollah and one of the key liaison individuals of Hamas to … Iran" while living in Lebanon, Schindler told DW.

Schindler said the Arouri's death weakens Hamas "to a certain extent," but does not "hamper the organization's ability to fight Israel [in Gaza]."

He said that Israel is the "most likely" actor to have killed Arouri, despite the fact that they did not claim responsibility for the attack. "As in the past… [Israel is] not going to admit to extrajudicial killings outside of the Palestinian territories.




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