The elimination sends an important message to those people managing the negotiations regarding the release of the captives: No one is safe, writes Israel Hayom. Other senior bureau members from Hamas in Gaza who currently live abroad now could be also on the list of targets. 

Three years after the elimination of former Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani: the deputy head of Hamas’ political bureau, Saleh Al-Arouri, was eliminated in a UAV strike in Dariye, Hezbollah’s streonghold in the heart of Beirut. However, al-Arouri is just one of a line of senior officials in the political bureau abroad and Gaza.

The UAV explosion rocked the Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, a Hezbollah stronghold. In addition to al-Arouri, at least three other Hamas operatives were also killed in the blast, Reuters reported.

The additional casualties were named by Reuters as Samir Findi Abu Amer and Azzam Al-Aqraa Abu Ammar, commanders of Hamas’s “military” wing in Lebanon.

Al-Arouri, the commander of Hamas operations in Judea and Samaria, as well as the deputy politburo chief under Hamas chairman Ismail Haniyeh, had been based in Lebanon in recent years.

He was one of the top Hamas leaders on Israel’s target list following the terrorist group’s mass murders on Oct. 7 of at least 1,200 people in the northwestern Negev, when they also kidnapped some 250 others and brought them back to the Gaza Strip. An estimated half that number are still being held captive there.

In a statement cited by Saudi Arabia’s Al Arabiya channel on Tuesday, Hamas described al-Arouri as the “architect” of the massacre. Al-Arouri was informed of the impending invasion half an hour beforehand so he could alert Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, French outlet Le Figaro reported last week.

Hezbollah called the strike on the Hamas office a “serious assault on Lebanon, its people, its security, sovereignty and resistance,” warning in a statement the killing would “not pass without a response and punishment.”

Haniyeh said, “The assassination of the leader al-Arouri and his brothers by the occupation is a fully-fledged terrorist act, a violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty, and an expansion of its aggression.”

Israel is anticipating a response to the alleged assassination, according to Hebrew-language media, including possible long-range rocket fire.

“We remain focused on fighting Hamas, we are highly prepared for any scenario,” IDF Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said on Tuesday night. He called on the public to “continue to obey all instructions.”

Al-Arouri is credited with orchestrating the relationship between Hamas and Iran. He further played a key role in re-establishing the Palestinian terrorist group’s ties with Damascus, which were severed in 2012 during the Syrian civil war.

He was recruited into Hamas in 1985 while studying Sharia law at Hebron University and had served 18 years in Israeli prisons. He was deported to Syria in 2010.

‘Ignite another surge of resistance’

Over the summer, Al-Arouri threatened a “regional war” should Israel resume targeted killings in the wake of a series of deadly terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria.

“If we reach the point of an all-out confrontation, Israel will face an unprecedented defeat in its history, and we are confident of that,” he told Al Mayadeen, a pro-Hezbollah Lebanese paper.

In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had heard al-Arouri’s “arrogant words” spoken “from his hiding place in Lebanon.

“He knows very well why he and his friends are in hiding places,” the premier added.

On Tuesday, Israeli government spokesperson Mark Regev told MSNBC that “whoever did this, it’s not an attack on the Lebanese state. It’s not an attack on the Hezbollah terrorist organization.

“Whoever did this, it’s an attack on Hamas, that’s very clear,” Regev stated.

The head of the bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, and his deputy, Musa Abu Marzouk, are still alive and kicking. The two are in charge of foreign relations and fundraising for the terrorist organization, writes Shachar Kleiman in Israel Hayom.

There is also the head of the Hamas “diaspora”, Khaled Mashal, who served as the leader of the terrorist organization in the past. The elimination also sends an important message to those people managing the negotiations regarding the release of the captives: No one is safe. Other senior bureau members from Hamas in Gaza who currently live abroad now could be also on the list of targets. The most significant among them is Fathi Hamad, who is apparently in Turkey. Hamad was previously responsible for establishing Hamas’ propaganda mouthpieces, served as a liaison between the military wing and the political bureau in the Gaza Strip, and left Gaza for Turkey. It can be assumed that he is also engaged there in terrorist activity. It seems, not by chance, that Turkish intelligence reported this week on the arrest of about 30 suspects in cooperation with Mossad.

According to Israel Hayom, eliminating the organization’s foreign leadership will not be the end. Although Israel has eliminated a line of commanders in the military wing in Gaza, including northern and central zone commanders, many of them are still lurking in the Strip.

The main targets are Yahya Sinwar, who heads Hamas in Gaza, and the heads of the military wing: Mohammed Deif, Marwan Issa, Raad Saad, and Rafea Salama. Alongside them can be listed other senior commanders such as Az a-Din al-Haddad, the northern Gaza City brigade commander in Hamas, most of whose battalions have already been eliminated. It can be hoped that with the defeat of the leadership of the terrorist organization, many of its capabilities will be destroyed.