Saleh al-Arouri, 57, was probably the west banker further influential: he number dos of the political office of the Palestinian faction of Hamas. Graduate in Islamic Law, the shariaSince he was a kid he was involved in unions and Muslim brotherhoods.

In 1987, as soon as Hamas emerged, it joined and, with a reputation for cunningwas ascending to its dome for three decades.

The unit engineer on the battlefield

Arouri led, for example, the emergency meeting they had Hamas and Hezbollah behind the slaughter that Palestinian terrorists carried out on October 7 In Israel. A armed wing that heI help createwith the Al-Qassam Brigades, in the early 90s. For two years he spent helping to configure its military structure and establish the group in his native West Bank, one of the occupied palestinian territories for Israel. They nicknamed him ‘the unit’s engineer on the battlefield’.

For his belligerent activism, The Israelis detained him on numerous occasions and he spent more than decade and a half in prison, precisely because of his role in the brigades. Operating from exile—first from Syria, then Qatar, and finally Lebanon—he gained political weight within Hamas: he negotiated the mass release of Palestinian prisoners in 2010, and played an important role in the reconciliation agreements between the Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, in 2017.

In October, Israeli forces had blown up his family home in the West Bank.

Why did they kill him?

The Israeli media (including the public) point to a powerful reason for his murder: to end his “convergent strategy.” Arouri was looking for join forces Not only Gaza and the West Bank, but also Hezbollah in Lebanon… and Iran. He was in charge of Hamas’s relations with both, in fact.

Now, a high precision attack has ended a life marked by the violencethe prison and one tumultuous relationship with Israel. Regarding the immediate consequences, beyond the extension of the conflict to Lebanon or the hardening of the posture Iranianworried that this may have some very important effects in the internal balances of Hamas.

He commanded the wing within Hamas that advocates integration with the Palestine Liberation Organization and facilitating the two-state solution but he was opposed in that to other commanders such as Sinwar, current leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.”