Salah Arouri, one of the leading Hamas leaders assassinated on Tuesday, was in an Israeli prison after being convicted in 1992 of involvement in four terrorist attacks with fatalities. Even under the watchful eyes of IPS intelligence officers, he continued extensive terrorist activity, at the end of which he was caught in 1998.
Watch: The moment of al-Arouri's assassination in Beirut
Israel Hayom opens Aruri's second criminal case for the first time. About his denials during interrogations about his activity in Hamas, about the prisoner who testified about Arouri's beginning as the leader of dozens of armed terrorists at Hebron University, and also about the lenient plea bargain signed with him by the MAG Corps, which was reprimanded by the court, but remained in place.
In 1990, Arouri was recruited to Hamas and instructed to expand the organization in Judea and Samaria. During this period, he studied Islamic law at Hebron University, where he recruited, trained, and armed operatives. The testimony of a Hamas operative to the police shows Arouri's abilities, how a junior terrorist operative responsible for only two villages became, even then, as a young student, the leader of dozens of armed terrorists, and up to the top echelons of Hamas.
Aruri's statement to the police (archive), photo: Netael Bandel
"In 1990, we were a squad called 'Eshbal' of about fifteen young men, all around the age of 20 – residents of Mazarea a-Nubani village in Ramallah," Mahmed Kabil, a Hamas activist, told police investigators as part of the investigation against Arouri. "The cell's activity was writing posters and distributing leaflets in the name of Hamas, throwing stones at the army, as well as throwing Molotov cocktails. I recruited operatives, but the person in charge of the cell was Ibraham Musafer, and his deputy was Mahmoud Shaer" (later a senior Hamas official who raises money in Dubai and transfers them directly to brothers Yahya and Muhammad Sinwar).
"The person who would have given us the orders was the Hamas official in the neighboring villages of Arora and Nabani - Saleh al-Arouri. One time our squad wrote posters against the mukhtar of the village of Nabani and there was a conflict between him and the Hamas operatives in the village. Al-Arouri sent an armed Hamas squad from Arora, who brought with them a leaflet saying that Nabani residents were warned not to interfere with Hamas activity in the village. Another time, we received an order from 'Arouri to throw stones at the house of a village resident who was suspected of collaborating with Israel so that he could leave the house and be murdered. Aruri Ma'arora's Hamas cell also kidnapped a 21-year-old Palestinian woman and murdered her, because her uncle was suspected of collaborating with Israel."
The scene of the killing of Salah al-Arouri in Beirut, photo: AP
As the witness relates, Arouri had already begun his studies at Hebron University and led dozens of armed terrorists. "In 1991 I started studying at Hebron University and was a member of Qutla Al-Islamia. I was appointed Emir of Hebron University, by that time Arouri was already the Emir of the Western Wall. There were dozens of activists at the Western Wall, all armed with pistols or M16 rifles." Arouri commanded Hamas' student terror cell and carried out terrorist attacks with them. Mahmed told the interrogators all the dozens of squad members, where they lived and what they were armed, all from his memory.
After the Arouri operatives under his command carried out four attacks, the last of which killed soldiers Shmuel Gersh and Yuval Tottenj, he was arrested along with 20 other operatives and sentenced to five years. However, the bars and the fact that he was under the watchful eyes of the Israel Prison Service did not really prevent him from continuing to manage the terror cells he established in the West Bank. Through families of terrorists who would come to visit, Arouri would smuggle letters with instructions for action, make appointments, recruit operatives, finance and even weapons. A group of prisoners with whom he quarreled framed Aruri and was indicted just before he was released from his first sentence.
Military court document in Arouri's case (archive), photo: Netael Bandel
In October 1998, Arouri sat down with interrogator Marco Dahan and denied any connection to Hamas. "I live in Arora, Ramallah, married without children and currently in administrative detention in Ashkelon Prison," he said, and continued: "It's true that in the past I belonged to Hamas, but since six years I've been in prison, and since then I've not belonged to or been active in any organization." Dahan insisted: "Nadi, Jalal and Musa Awad said he had instructed how to obtain weapons, that you recruited for Hamas, that you participated in Hamas planning meetings in prison and that you smuggled letters with instructions, including regarding fundraising."
Arouri continued to deny: "It's one big lie. They confessed to me because I'm already in prison anyway and to hide other activists who did it. I am inactive and have not acted. I'm sure Nadi works with the Shin Bet, so he's giving you all this information." Arouri had a special request from the interrogator: "I ask you, as his interrogator, to tell him that I said he was cooperating with the Israeli Shin Bet." This is in fact an attempt to send a threat to the prosecution witnesses, Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel were murdered by Hamas.
Military court file with Aruri's PFA incidents (archive), photo: Natael Bandel
The interrogator continued to ask about a conversation Arouri had with a prisoner, in which he shared with him the phenomenon in which Hamas operatives caught by Israel confess to their interrogation by the Shin Bet and incriminate their friends, especially the ways to prevent or identify them. Arouri denied, "I spoke with him in prison about the situation in which all the detainees detained by the Palestinian Authority confess to activity in Hamas, and I did not talk about the interrogations of the Israeli Shin Bet."
After negotiations conducted by the MAG Corps with Aruri's defense attorneys, Attorney Mahmid Saleh and Attorney Andre Rosenthal, they reached a plea bargain, in which he would confess and be sentenced to only five years in prison. The president of the military court in Gaza, Lt. Col. Yoram Haniel, strongly criticized the State Prosecutor's Office: "This punishment does not serve as a benchmark and level of punishment for this type of offense. Without a plea bargain, I would have greatly reversed the defendant's rights to sentence him to this sentence and it is reasonable to assume that I would have eventually imposed a harsher sentence on him."
The scene of the killing of Salah al-Arouri in Beirut, photo: AP
Despite this, he decided to leave the agreed sentence in place: "I decided that it would be right in this case to adopt and accept the plea bargain, and not to deviate from the well-known law regarding the court's intervention in plea bargains." Arouri appealed to the military court, demanding that the five-year count be counted from the date of his arrest, so that in practice he would hardly serve another few years in prison. The MAG Corps objected and asked to submit intelligence material from the Shin Bet to the court.
Aruri's lawyers objected and took the matter to the Supreme Court. During the Supreme Court hearing, when the state was represented by the young attorney Shai Nitzan – who later became the state attorney – Justices Mishael Cheshin, Eliezer Rivlin and Miriam Naor clarified that Aruri's chances in the proceeding were slim, and he withdrew the petition. The judges of the Military Court of Appeals in Gaza, Colonels Shaul Gordon, Itzik Mina and Yossi Shapira, rejected the appeal.
Saleh al-Arouri meeting with Nasrallah, photo: AFI
Arouri finished serving his sentence in 2004. Since the prison sentence was light and short, he was immediately transferred by the ISA to administrative detention for another 3 years. Immediately after his release from administrative detention, he was arrested again, and in 2010 he was released on condition that he be exiled abroad. Since then, he has become one of the leaders of Hamas that has operated in many countries in the Middle East. Yesterday, as mentioned, he was assassinated in Beirut.
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