GAZA(Palestine Foundation Information Center)The assassination of the Deputy Head of the Political Bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, Sheikh Saleh Al-Aruri, on Tuesday evening, in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a Hamas office in the Al- Musharrafieh area in the southern suburbs of Beirut, has sparked angry reactions.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said that the targeting of Al-Aruri and his brothers comes in the context of the persistent Israeli attempts to achieve any field achievement that the Israeli government can present to its people, after failing to confront the resistance in the field and achieve any of the objectives of the continuous aggression on the Gaza Strip for nearly three months, despite the bloody massacres and campaigns of extermination.
The Front added: “We bid farewell to the steadfast, solid resistance martyr whom we knew in all arenas and the fields of struggle and resistance, the leader who was keen on Palestinian national unity, cause, and resistance.”
“Palestine has always been his highest goal and priority above all, and he sacrificed his soul for its sake. This is accompanied by action, carrying the characteristics of a personality that left a deep impact on everyone who knew him. He continued to play an important role in searching for common ground and focusing on involving everyone in the details of the field situation during the aggression against our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and all parts of Palestine,” the PFLP elaborated.
It said, “Our Palestinian people, all the forces of resistance, the honorable people of our nation, and the free people of the world bid farewell today to an exceptional leader whom we knew as brave, courageous, unifying, calling for the consolidation of ranks and unity of positions in defense of our people and their just cause. He had the honor of actively contributing and playing a pivotal leadership role in enhancing and developing the capabilities of resistance in various fields and arenas.”
The PFLP pledged to continue the struggle and said, “It is the greatness of martyrdom embodied by the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, and its armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades. The condolences are the same for all their brothers in the Movement, the martyr’s family, his supporters, and our people. We express our utmost pride and respect, vowing to the martyr leader and all the martyrs to continue on the path of struggle and resistance until the full achievement of the goals for which they sacrificed, the blood of the martyrs will not be wasted.”
The Islamic Jihad Movement, through its relations secretary, Haitham Abu Ghazlan, said that this crime affects the Islamic Jihad Movement as well as Hamas and all factions.
Spokesperson Muhammad Al-Hajj said that the assassination of Al-Aruri is evidence of the Israeli failure in Gaza and the West Bank, and added that the resistance will increase its determination and adherence to defeat the occupation.
Al-Hajj affirmed that this operation will not go unpunished, adding that Israel is trying to expand the scope of confrontation and drag the entire region into war to escape its field failure in Gaza.
He said, “The courageous Palestinian resistance will respond to this crime with all its might,” noting that “this enemy has committed a costly mistake.”
He continued, “We say to all free people of the world that the Palestinian people will not surrender or retreat and will continue the resistance until the complete liberation of its land and their entire territory.”
The Palestinian Mujahideen Movement mourned the martyr leader, Salah Al-Aruri, and his colleagues from the Al-Qassam Brigades, with all the meanings of the glory of jihad, dignity, and challenge. The defeated enemy and its fascist extremist government will pay a heavy price for this new foolishness and for all the crimes against our steadfast people, it added.
They will not break the will of our people
The Resistance Committees in Palestine affirmed that the cowardly assassination operation will not break the will of our people but will increase their revolutionary action and their courageous resistance.
The Palestinian National Initiative Movement described Israel’s assassination of Al-Aruri as a cowardly crime that will not break the will of the Palestinian people or their courageous resistance. It will deepen and intensify the Palestinian struggle for freedom, it added.
The Movement said that the martyr Al-Aruri achieved the martyrdom he desired, but the assassinations of Palestinian leaders from martyrs Yasser Arafat to martyr Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and hundreds of militant leaders have only increased the determination of the Palestinian people to achieve freedom. “It has not weakened them but strengthened the spirit of resistance and struggle,: it affirmed.
The Movement said that Israeli leaders are playing with fire and pushing the region into a comprehensive explosion.
The People’s Party condemned the assassination of the great leader and militant Saleh Al-Arouri and a number of Hamas leaders in Beirut: “We offer our deepest condolences to our people, the families of the martyrs, and our brothers in Hamas. Our people will not forget the struggles and sacrifices of the late Al-Aruri, and he will remain a symbol of Palestinian struggle and resistance in defense of our national rights. This crime will not succeed in undermining the will and resilience of our people.
The caretaker Lebanese Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, had earlier condemned the explosion that occurred in the southern suburbs of Beirut, which led to casualties and injuries.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Balata refugee camp in Nablus bid farewell to, “The leader of men, Sheikh Saleh Al-Aruri, the instigator of revolution in the West Bank, the foremost supporter of all resistance fighters in the national factions. We affirm that the assassinations and bombings will only increase our strength, beliefs and conviction. We declare tomorrow (Wednesday) a day of mourning and mobilization against the Israeli occupation.”
Fatah movement in Ramallah and Al-Bireh called for a general strike tomorrow (Wednesday) in response to the assassination of Palestinian leader Saleh Al-Aruri.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh condemned the assassination, describing it as a crime with identifiable perpetrators and warned of the risks and consequences that may result from this crime.
Shtayyeh said, “With the martyrdom of Saleh Al-Aruri, who spent years in Israeli prisons, the Palestinian people lose one of their unifying men who always called for unity and strengthening national unity in the face of the occupation and its crimes against our people.”
A cowardly assassination operation
Deputy head of the political bureau of Hamas, Saleh Al-Aruri, was martyred on Tuesday evening after the Israeli occupation shelled a Hamas office in the Al-Musharafiyeh area in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
The official Lebanese news agency reported, “Four martyrs, including the Hamas leader Saleh Al-Aruri, along with a number of injuries, were killed in the targeting of a Hamas office in the southern suburbs of Beirut.”
Al-Aruri was born in the town of Arura near the city of Ramallah in the West Bank in 1966. He obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Islamic Sharia from al-Khalil University in the West Bank.
The martyr joined the Muslim Brotherhood at an early age and led the “Islamic Student Action” at al-Khalil University in 1985.
After the establishment of Hamas at the end of 1987, Al-Aruri joined the Movement. He was later administratively detained by the Israeli army between 1990 and 1992, due to his activities in Hamas.
In 1992, the Israeli occupation army re-arrested Al-Aruri and sentenced him to 15 years in prison for forming the first cells of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, in the West Bank. He was released in 2007, but the occupation re-arrested him after three months and held him in captivity for three years (until 2010), after which the Israeli Supreme Court decided to release him and deport him outside of Palestine.
The martyr Al-Aruri is considered one of the founders of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas. He began in the period between 1991 and 1992 by establishing the first nucleus of the armed wing’s military apparatus in the West Bank.
