Above photo: Palestinian protestors with green flags of Hamas shout slogans during a protest in the Occupied West Bank city of Hebron following the killing of Hamas deputy leader Saleh Al-Aruri in Lebanon, January 3, 2024. Mamoun Wazwaz/APA Images.
Israeli spokesperson says the assassination of Hamas leader Saleh Al-Aruri was “not an attack on the Lebanese state.”
While Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah pledge resistance will continue.
Casualties
- 22,313+ killed* and at least 57,296 wounded in the Gaza Strip.
- 321 Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem
- Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,147.
- 506 Israeli soldiers killed since October 7, and at least 2,193 injured.
*This figure was confirmed by Gaza’s Ministry of Health on January 3. Due to breakdowns in communication networks within the Gaza Strip, the Ministry of Health in Gaza has been unable to regularly and accurately update its tolls since mid-November. Some rights groups say the death toll is higher than 30,000 when accounting for those presumed dead.
Key Developments
- Israel kills Hamas deputy political leader, Saleh Al-Aruri, alongside two commanders and four cadres, injuring eleven others in drone attack in Beirut.
- Aruri was one of masterminds of The Al-Aqsa Flood operation and talked about it openly in an interview with Al-Mayadeen channel in August.
- In the interview, Aruri revealed the Palestinian resistance was ready for a scenario that later manifested in the October 7 surprise attack on Israel.
- Israel’s military spokesperson says Israel is “in a high state of readiness for any scenario” without officially admitting if Tel Aviv was behind the assassination.
- Axios reveals Israel was behind the Aruri killing.
- Hamas political leader Ismael Haniyeh says assassination is “a full-fledged terrorist act” violating Lebanon’s sovereignty.
- Haniyeh says resistance fighters in Gaza turned Israel’s Merkava tanks into “charred coffins” and “no security, stability, or future in the region” without Palestinians achieving their political rights.
- Islamic Jihad says “Al-Aruri assassination would not go unpunished and the resistance would continue until the occupation is defeated.”
- Hezbollah says “this crime will never pass without response and punishment” as Syed Hassan Nasrallah is scheduled to give a speech on fourth anniversary of U.S. assassination of Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani.
- Israel’s foreign media spokesperson says “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.”
- Gaza’s Ministry of Health announces Israel committed ten massacres in the past 24 hours, killing 128 and injuring 261 Palestinians.
- Itamar Ben-Gvir rejects U.S. criticism of calls to force Palestinians from Gaza and says Israel is ‘not another star on the American flag.’
- Israeli forces arrest dozens of Palestinians in West Bank, and fire drone missile on Nour Sham refugee camp in Tulkarm.
Israel Kills Saleh Al-Aruri, Deputy Political Leader Of Hamas, In Beirut
Saleh Al-Aruri, 57, the deputy political leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), was killed in a drone airstrike in the Lebanese capital Beirut on Tuesday evening.
Aruri is the most senior Hamas leader to be killed since the October 7 Palestinian cross-fence attack, which shocked Israel’s security and intelligence establishment.
Aruri was one of the masterminds of The Al-Aqsa Flood operation. He talked about it openly in an interview with Al-Mayadeen channel in August.
On Tuesday evening, he was killed in the movement’s office in Al-Dahiya, the southern Beirut suburb and the stronghold of Hezbollah movement.
The drone attack killed two commanders of Izz El-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, Azzam Al-Aqraa and Samir Effendi, and four Hamas cadres, Mahmoud Zaki Shaheen, Muhammad Bashasha, Muhammad Al-Rayes, and Ahmed Hammoud. Eleven others were also injured.
Israel’s military spokesperson, Daniel Hagari, said Israel is “in a high state of readiness for any scenario” without officially admitting if Tel Aviv was behind the assassination.
“The most important thing to say tonight is that we are focused and remain focused on fighting Hamas,” Hagari said.
However, Axios revealed that Israel was behind the Aruri killing. Ismael Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, said on Tuesday evening that the assassination was a “full-fledged terrorist act” which violated Lebanon’s sovereignty.
Prior to the Aruri killing, Haniyeh said in a speech that resistance fighters in Gaza turned the Merkava tanks into “charred coffins” and that “no security, stability, or future in the region unless the Palestinian people obtain their legitimate rights in their state, with Al-Quds as its capital.”
He also added that excluding Hamas from any future plans is “an illusion” and the movement is open to forming a Palestinian national unity government, while it remains adamant that it will not release any captives while Israel carries on the bombardment of Gaza.
Hezbollah: ‘This Crime Will Never Pass Without Punishment’
All Palestinian factions issued statements condemning the Aruri assassination and highlighting his efforts as a national figure that worked to end Israel’s occupation in Palestine and his attempt to reach a conciliation deal with Fatah in 2018.
Ezzat al-Rishq, a Hamas leader, said Aruri’s killing was “once again a proof of Israel’s failure to achieve any of its goals in the Gaza Strip,” following 88 days of bombardment.
“Israel is trying to escape from the political impasse it is experiencing after 90 days of barbaric war and genocide [in Gaza] and its failure to impose its conditions on the Palestinian people,” said a statement by the Islamic Jihad.
“Al-Aruri assassination would not go unpunished and the resistance would continue until the occupation is defeated,” it added.
Hezbollah also pledged to punish Israel. The attack happened in the movement’s backyard. Hezbollah’s leader, Syed Hassan Nasrallah, is scheduled to speak on Wednesday evening on the fourth anniversary of Qassem Soleimani’s assassination by a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad airport in 2020.
Soleimani was the Iranian commander of Quds Force in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and he reportedly visited Gaza on numerous occasions.
Hezbollah said following the Aruri assassination that “this crime will never pass without response and punishment.”
“The criminal enemy, which after ninety days of crime, murder and destruction, was unable to subjugate Gaza, Khan Younis, the Jabalia camp and the rest of the cities, camps and proud villages, is resorting to a policy of assassination and physical liquidation of everyone who worked, planned, carried out or supported The Al-Aqsa Flood operation,” Hezbollah said.
Since October 8, Hezbollah had been attacking Israeli settlements and military barracks near southern Lebanon, which led to thousands of Israelis deserting their homes to live in hotels and shelters subsidized by the government since October.
Israel: ‘It’s Not An Attack On The Lebanese State’
Aruri, who lived between Beirut, Istanbul, and Damascus, was an interlocker and coordinator between Hamas, Iran, and Hezbollah.
The condemnations of the Aruri killing alongside Hamas commanders and cadres poured in from the Palestinians Authority, Iran, Yemen, and Lebanon on Tuesday evening.
“Such a cowardly terrorist operation proves that the Zionist regime has not achieved any of its goals after weeks of war crimes,” Iran’s top diplomat, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, wrote on X.
“The evil activity of this regime’s terror machine in other countries is a real threat to peace and security and a serious alarm for the security of all countries in the region,” he added.
Israel’s foreign media spokesperson Mark Regev told MSNBC, “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.”
In October, the Israeli forces had raided the house of Saleh Al-Aruri, in Aroura village, northwest of Ramallah, and turned it into a command and interrogation center before blowing it up on October 31.
He is one of the founders of Izz El-Din Al-Qassam Brigades in the early 1990s, the armed wing of Hamas, and had spent 18 years in total in Israeli jails. Aruri was released in 2010 but was not allowed to return to the West Bank.
He was deported to Damascus and since has lived in Gaza, Beirut, Istanbul, and Damascus. He was involved in Wafa al-Ahrar (Faithful to the free) in 2011 in which the Israeli captive soldier Gilad Shalit was exchanged with 1,027 Palestinian prisoners, including Hamas chief Yahya Al-Sinwar.
Aruri: ‘I Feel Like I’m Living In The Extra Time’
Aruri became a key player in planning attacks against the Israeli occupation in the occupied West Bank and was behind the kidnapping and killing of three Israelis in Hebron in 2015.
Since then, Israeli intelligence has mentioned his name as a top target for assassination. In December, Israel’s internal intelligence chief vowed “to eliminate Hamas… We will do this everywhere, in Gaza, in the West Bank, in Lebanon, in Turkey, in Qatar. It will take a few years but we will be there to do it.”
However, in the summer of 2023, Aruri responded to a blatant threat by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to kill him, with a photo sitting and talking in the phone, while wearing a military uniform and with a machine gun on his desk.
When asked about the threat during an interview with Al-Mayadeen channel in August, Aruri said that he has already lived enough and never imagined that he would reach this age.
“I feel like I’m living on the extra time,” he said with a smile on his face.
Aruri also revealed in that interview that the Palestinian resistance was ready for a scenario which later became clear was the October 7 surprise attacks on Israel.
“We are preparing for a comprehensive war, and we are discussing this in closed rooms with all parties and components that are related to this war,” he said.
He added that the classic wars Israel used to launch since 1967 are not compatible anymore with the new weapons and paramilitary tactics used in Ukraine and elsewhere.
“If a comprehensive conflict was opened, this means that the occupation’s airspace and sea will be closed, and there will be no electricity, communications, or economy… the resistance forces are capable of doing that,” he added.
Aruri was one of Hamas leaders to bow down in Istanbul, in a gesture of gratitude to God, when Al-Jazeera channel broke the news of the October 7 surprise attack.
In 2015, the U.S. put Aruri on a “terrorist watch list” with a reward of five million dollars for any information leading to his arrest or killing.
He played a key role in resistance attacks in the occupied West Bank and said that if Palestinians did not fight the one million settlers today, in a decade, they will have to fight three million of them.
“My message to our people, all stand up and fight. Throw a stone, a Molotov cocktail, [use] a rifle. Resist with everything you can get your hands on. Instead of a thousand young men in the resistance, 100 thousand young men must participate in the resistance, a million young people must resist.”
Israeli Forces Bomb Gaza As Palestinians Protest And Announce General Strike In West Bank
On Tuesday evening, thousands of Palestinians protested in the streets of several cities and towns in the West Bank, and a general strike was announced on Wednesday.
Israeli forces also kept bombing Gaza in the past 24 hours. Gaza’s Ministry of Health said on Wednesday morning that 22,313 Palestinian martyrs have been killed and 57,296 have been injured in Israeli attacks on the enclave.
The ministry added that Israel committed ten massacres in the past 24 hours, killing 128 and injuring 261 Palestinians.
As of Tuesday evening, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, had received the bodies of 40 Palestinians and treated 100 people injured in Israeli bombing, according to Wafa news agency.
Israeli artillery also bombed Rafah, Al-Bureij refugee camp, and fired phosphorous and smoke bombs in the vicinity of the Central Education Directorate and the Khaled bin Al-Walid School in the Nuseirat camp.
At least 16 were killed in Israeli air strikes on Al-Qatami Basic School for Boys near Ansar roundabout in Gaza, which shelters displaced people. The Palestine Red Crescent Society said that five people were killed when Israel bombed their offices in Khan Younis, for the second time on Tuesday.
Israeli forces also bombed Al-Dawa Mosque and several houses in the east of Khan Younis’s Ma’an area.
On Wednesday, three Palestinians were killed when Israel bombed the house of Al-Nahhal family in the Khirbet Al-Adas area, east of Rafah. Israeli forces also bombed several of Ain Goliath towers in Nuseirat camp.
Ben-Gvir: ‘[Israel Is] Not Another Star On The American Flag’
In response to criticism from Biden administration officials at Israeli calls to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, far-right Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir thanked the U.S. for being Israel’s “best friend” but said, “with all due respect we are not another star on the American flag.”
Ben-Gvir said, “we will do what is best for the State of Israel: the migration of hundreds of thousands from Gaza will allow the residents of the enclave to return home and live in security and protect the IDF soldiers.”
Pushing out the 2.2 million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip has been a constant goal for many Israeli politicians and has been reiterated by Western figures, including U.S. presidential candidate Nikki Haley, who said Palestinians should go to “pro-Hamas” countries.
The U.S. State Department said that Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich’s remarks about the resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza, was an “inflammatory and irresponsible” rhetoric.
“We have been told repeatedly and consistently by the Government of Israel, including by the Prime Minister, that such statements do not reflect the policy of the Israeli government. They should stop immediately,” the State Department added.
Israel Fires Drone Missile In Nour Shams Refugee Camp, Arrest Dozens
Israeli forces arrested dozens of Palestinians in the West Bank as it raided several towns and cities.
Israeli military stormed Nour Shams refugee camp near Tulkarm in the northern West Bank and surrounded the Governmental Thabet Thabet and Al-Israa Specialized hospitals. Wafa reported that forces bulldozed a memorial of martyr Murad Al-Pasha while raiding houses. Several Palestinians were injured in an Israeli drone attack in the camp’s Abu al-Foul neighborhood.
Wafa reported that the military raid last for 10 hours, during which several houses were vandalized by Israeli forces.
Israel fears that Nour Shams will be turned into a launching pad of resistance attacks on settlers and military barracks in the northern West Bank, and its army has been raiding Tulkarem on a near daily basis for the past several months as part of its “mowing the lawn” counterinsurgency strategy.