On video: Deputy leader of Hamas Al-Aruri was killed in Beirut January 2, 2024/documentation on social networks according to Article 27 A of the Copyright Law
January 2 this year.
Senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri landed in Beirut very quickly and under security, his convoy made its way from the airport in Beirut to the Hamas offices on Hassan Nasrallah Street in the heart of Hezbollah's stronghold in Lebanon: the secure Da'iyah district.
The convoy stopped near a 6-story building that is known as the Hamas office and residential area.
Al-Aaruri went up to the office floor and suddenly loud explosions were heard that terrified the entire street.
When the cloud of dust and the smell of the explosives dissipated, it could be seen that the main destruction was in one apartment.
The media in Lebanon were quick to report that the targeted countermeasures attributed to Israel included the killing of al-Arouri, Samir Pandi, Azzam al-Akra, Muhammad Shahin, Ahmed Hamoud, Muhammad al-Ris, and Muhammad Bashasha.
No civilians were killed.
Salah Al Aroori/Official website, no
It was a double intelligence drama.
The assassination of senior Hamas officials, led by Al Aruri, during a war not far from Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah's fortress in Lebanon, which he had patronized in recent years. In Israel, they maintained wireless silence until Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to reveal this week and take responsibility for a precisely targeted counterattack led by The Shin Bet and the IDF. Cooperation in the work of gathering intelligence, which also requires sharpness in choosing the timing of the attack and in the execution in order not to escape the fire and not to drag Nasrallah into an unusual reaction to the killing of Lebanese citizens or the organization's operatives on Lebanese soil. The precise countermeasures also caused a feeling of infiltration in Hezbollah and Hamas in Lebanon and created a disruption of normal activity and a sense of persecution among the top brass.
A few weeks earlier, Shin Bet chief Ronan Bar hinted at the high motivation to harm Hamas members wherever they may be in light of the events of October 7.
During a cabinet meeting with heads of authorities in the Israel Defense Forces during December 2023, the head of the Shin Bet said: "We will eliminate senior Hamas officials in Qatar and Turkey as well. It will take a few years, but we will be there. This is the Munich of our generation. Everywhere: in Gaza, in Q. In Lebanon, in Turkey, in Qatar, everywhere.
It will take a few years, but we will be there to do it."
It is true that targeted countermeasures were made possible by close cooperation between the secret organization and the IDF, but the hunt for al-Aaruri has been going on for years and is being led by the Shin Bet's anti-terrorism division from terrorist headquarters abroad.
As mentioned, the division in its current format was established about two years ago as part of the organizational change carried out in the Shin Bet in order to focus engagement on all Palestinian targets operating around the world to carry out terrorist activity against Israel. The engagement abroad existed, but received additional focus and resources.
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Al-Aroori with Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah/Official website, no
Al-Aruri has been targeted by the Shin Bet since 2010 when he was released from Israeli prison on the condition that he leave the area. Jordan refused to accept him and he fled to Syria and later hopped between different countries. Later he was appointed deputy head of the political bureau in Hamas and in charge of Hamas headquarters abroad.
His mission was to establish terrorist infrastructures around the world against Israeli targets, with an emphasis on Judea and Samaria and the hinterland of the State of Israel, but also targets abroad. Al-Aaruri brought with him to the position a great deal of knowledge of terrorism, familiarity with the areas of the Yash, a connection to key terrorist operatives and large sums of money that began to flow to the headquarters headed by
The first deadly attack led by al-Aaruri's headquarters was the kidnapping and murder of the three boys in the Yosh in the summer of 2014: Yaakov Naftali Frankel (16), Gil-ad Shaar (16), and Eyal Yafarah (19), deceased.
After that, Al-Aaruri and his family moved to Turkey under the auspices of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and from there he included the headquarters, which raises funds and gradually establishes terrorist infrastructures around the world.
At the same time as the Israeli political pressure in 2016 for Turkey to deport al-Arouri, the Shin Bet expanded the task of collecting the headquarters whose people move between Jordan, Syria, Qatar, Lebanon and other countries. In 2016 he moved to Qatar, but under American pressure he was forced to move to Lebanon According
to security sources, as the headquarters expanded from focusing on IOS to targets around the world, a decision was made in the Shin Bet in July 2023 to establish a new countermeasures division that could track and thwart the terrorist axes of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front, and the Shia axis backed by Iran and Hezbollah From the end of the planning and financing to the operations in the field in cooperation with the Mossad and Amn.
Al-Aroori's move to Lebanon accelerated the activity to establish terrorist infrastructures.
The connection to the senior Palestinian Iranian brothers-in-law who live in Beirut, the connection to Hezbollah Secretary-General Nasrallah and Hezbollah officials and the money from Tehran - expanded al-Arouri's headquarters and accordingly the axes of action around the world. One of the examples of this was given during Passover last year, when, according to security sources in Israel, Nasrallah approved al- Arori to launch at the same time as 44 rockets from Israel, also 34 rockets from southern Lebanon towards the Western Galilee. The dangerous connection gave further validity to the degree of urgency in the collection effort of the countermeasures division of the Shin Bet.
The bombed building in Beirut where al-Arouri was killed/Reuters
Following the extensive activity of the Shin Bet and the cyber personnel of the Israel Police, indictments were filed in November 2022 against three residents of the north on the charge of planning damage to communications infrastructure. Hamas operatives in Turkey to promote terrorist attacks in Israel after military training in Turkey and Syria that included weapons training and the production of explosives.
The Shin Bet warned that the connection between the Iranians and Hezbollah in Lebanon to Saleh al-Aruri's headquarters will only increase the scope of terrorism against Israeli targets.
In December of last year, the security organizations and the enforcement system in Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany announced the arrest of members of a terrorist infrastructure that operated for Hamas in Europe with the aim of harming Israelis, Jews and Western citizens.
At a later stage, the investigation yielded additional information about a terrorist infrastructure in Sweden as well and foiled an attack against the embassy in Stockholm with the intention of assassinating the Israeli ambassador.
The Shin Bet recently confirmed that the Division for Countering Terrorism Abroad was operating in the shadows to expose the infrastructure from the warning to the countering itself.
At the same time, the Shin Bet officials pointed out that the Hamas headquarters led by al-Arouri promotes ties with criminal gangs in Europe, not necessarily Palestinians, in order to carry out terrorist attacks for a lot of money.
Al-Aroori with Yahya Sinwar/Official website, no
The replacement did not step into Al-Aaruri's shoes
The Hamas attack on October 7 surprised not only Israeli intelligence but also the top brass of Hezbollah and Hamas in Lebanon led by Saleh al-Aaruri.
Nasrallah will admit in one of his speeches that he was surprised by the timing.
Immediately after that, the senior terrorists in the Land of Cedars move to fortified areas for fear of targeted threats by Israel, but as days pass, when Hezbollah carries out raid attacks on the Israel-Lebanon border, al-Aaruri's headquarters at the same time raises its head and tries to contribute its part to the terrorist effort against Israel.
As part of investigations carried out by the Shin Bet, a clear picture emerged that al-Arouri and the other senior officials designated the headquarters not only for routine attacks but for the timing of a war with Israel with an emphasis on the Ramadan period and in combination with broad incitement, they would lead to the consolidation of scenes against Israel from a number of targets including Yemen and therefore held in Hamas also Contact with the Houthi rebels.
The days pass and Israel announces a limited campaign against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and excludes attacks in Beirut from the equation. Therefore, it can be estimated that al-Aaruri and other senior Hamas officials feel comfortable despite the threats against them in the shadow of statements by members of the Israeli government and the heads of the security establishment, to move around Throughout Lebanon, accompanied by two security rings: Hamas and Hezbollah.
Under Al-Arouri, a variety of department heads operated according to geographic areas and areas, for example: Jenin, Hebron, Nablus, Tulkarm and Jericho, who were responsible for recruiting and operating agents, including a mechanism for transferring Money, information and orders to be carried out. At Al-Aaruri's side in Lebanon, other senior Hamas officials worked, including Samir Pandi, who was more subordinate to Khaled than Sha'al, but after he was deported to Beirut, worked closely with and at times subordinated to Al-Aaruri to carry out terrorist attacks abroad.
"Apart from knowledge, familiarity with the terrain and terrorist recruitment methods lies in particularly bad Hamas deportees. A lot of cruelty," said security officials who are familiar with the work processes of Hamas operatives abroad. "Those released from the Shalit deal expanded the nature and variety of threats to the State of Israel."
Samir Pandi who was eliminated along with al-Aroori/Official website, no
The muffled explosions throughout Lebanon continued.
In November 2023, Hamas confirmed that Khalil Haraz, the deputy of the military branch in Lebanon and one of the figures close to al-Aaruri who was, among other things, responsible for smuggling weapons, was killed after an aircraft attacked the vehicle in which he was traveling.
As mentioned, the Palestinian finger was pointed at Israel.
Sources in the security system emphasized that the level of motivation of the Hamas infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, in IOS and abroad has risen to heights not seen in recent years, and this included a great effort to transfer funds for the purposes of attacks.
At the same time, the Shin Bet confirmed a targeted activity in Rafah after an IDF fighter jet, under the joint intelligence direction of the Amman and the Shin Bet, eliminated Tzavahi Proana, a prominent financier, who was involved in recent years with his brother through the "Hamasat" exchange brand they own And these transferred tens of millions of dollars to the terrorist organization Hamas in various destinations.
In February of this year, the media in Lebanon reported that the Israeli Air Force attacked the vehicle of Bassel Saleh, a Hamas operative in Lebanon, in the Sidon area.
Saleh, who survived the attack, is responsible in Hamas for recruiting and operating operatives, among other things, in Yosh, a senior in the works department run by Azzam Akra, who thwarted a relationship with al-Aaruri in Beirut.
According to estimates in the security establishment, Hamas estimated that the name given to the attack on October 7, "Tofan (Flood) al-Aqsa", would help recruit operatives in the IDF, in particular and in general, for the attacks, and that al-Aaruri's headquarters would work alongside them. The Shin Bet personnel who suffered a painful failure very much against the background of not giving a warning, they recovered very quickly and until the last few days foiled about 250 terrorist attacks made by Hamas with a very clear fingerprint of the activists or money coming from abroad. At the same time, they warned about terrorist attacks and assisted in thwarting terrorist infrastructures from Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Sinai.
Hamas wants to bring Al Aqsa into the equation/Reuters
The incitement system of Hamas took a turn last week when it began to define the period as "Tufan Ramadan" in order to sway young people to terrorist attacks under the title of a religious war against Israel and spreading false claims of damage to the Temple Mount during Ramadan, which is already known as an explosive period.
Al-Aaruri is gone, and according to sources in the security establishment, he left behind a significant void.
After the targeted thwarting, Zaher Jabrin was appointed as a replacement, who at this stage is having difficulty stepping into Al-Aaruri's shoes in understanding the patterns of operation in Israel and knowing the terrain, including the method of recruitment and the transfer of funds, including from Qatar, in the form of donations to charity, education and welfare organizations.
Therefore, the security establishment estimates that al-Arouri's countermeasures are multi-dimensional and have a wide impact on Hamas and the territory, since he and his men operated on two regular levels: carrying out terrorist attacks against Israel and flooding the Palestinian territories with many means of warfare in the hope that they would also trickle down to Israeli Arabs and integrate them into new recruits They will result in attacks in the future or during a war. Its lack is a challenge to the headquarters in Lebanon. However, the security system warns that these days the Shin Bet, together with other bodies in the security system, are dealing with thwarting dozens of very dangerous terrorist axes, open in the professional definition, around the world.
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Hamas
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Hezbollah
Saleh al-Aaruri
Shin Bet
Hassan Nasrallah
Gaza war
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