Assassination of Saleh al-Arouri

On 2 January 2024, Saleh al-Arouri, deputy leader of the Hamas political bureau, was killed in a strike on a Hamas office in Dahieh, a residential suburb of Beirut, Lebanon. The strike also killed six other individuals, including several high-ranking Hamas militants. Al-Arouri was described as one of the architects of the October 7 attacks on Israel and was responsible for expanding Hamas activities in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including attacks on Israelis. The attack was widely believed to have been carried out by Israel, though Israel did not publicly confirm its involvement until May 2025, when al-Arouri's name and photo appeared in a publicity photo of Hamas leaders killed by Israel.

The strike occurred amid the wider regional conflict that followed the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, during which Hezbollah had begun exchanging fire with Israeli forces along the Lebanon-Israel border. Reports indicate that allied groups had warned Hamas that the Beirut office's location may have been exposed to Israeli intelligence, and that members using mobile phones and the office's Wi-Fi connection may have increased surveillance risk. Lebanese security officials suspected a stealth aircraft fired precision-guided missiles into the office, noting that Lebanon's radar systems lacked the capability to detect such aircraft.

According to CCTV footage cited by Lebanese broadcaster MTV Lebanon, the strike occurred around 17:41 local time. Cell phone footage showed a car in flames outside a damaged residential building as crowds gathered. Early reports of four deaths were later revised to six, including a possible civilian. Hamas identified those killed alongside al-Arouri as Operations Chief in Lebanon Samir Fendi, Azzam al-Aqra, Mahmoud Zaki Shahin, Mohammad Bashasha, Mohammad al-Rayes, and Mohammad Hamoud. Two senior U.S. officials confirmed that Israel was responsible for the strike.

Al-Arouri was the highest-ranking Hamas leader killed since the start of the Gaza war until the later assassination of Ismail Haniyeh. Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah described the strike as a "major and dangerous crime" and stated it would not go unanswered; Hezbollah subsequently announced it had carried out nine attacks on Israeli positions. The same day, a separate Israeli airstrike in Naqoura, Lebanon, killed a local Hezbollah commander and three bodyguards.

The killing drew condemnation from the Lebanese government, Iran, and various Palestinian and regional groups, while Israeli officials avoided directly claiming responsibility at the time, with one adviser to the Israeli prime minister stating only that "whoever did it" had conducted a "surgical strike" against Hamas leadership. Demonstrations followed in several Lebanese cities and in Ramallah, near al-Arouri's hometown.