Saleh Mohammed Salim Al-Arouri (August 19, 1966 – January 2, 2024) was a prominent Palestinian political and military leader, and the former deputy chief of the Political Bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement "Hamas". He played a role in founding the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas in the West Bank, and is considered the mastermind behind arming the Al-Qassam Brigades. He was arrested and spent about 15 years in occupation prisons before being deported from Palestine. He was also one of the negotiating team members who completed the deal of the "Shalit Exchange." He is married and has two daughters, and was living in Lebanon at the time of his death.
Saleh Al-Arouri - Background and Education
He was born in the village of Arura in the Ramallah District in 1966. He received his primary, preparatory, and secondary education in Palestine. He obtained a bachelor's degree in Islamic law from Hebron University. He became involved in Islamic work at a young age, starting in school and mosque activities, and later led the Islamic student movement (Islamic Bloc) at the university from 1985 until his arrest in 1992.
Saleh Al-Arouri - Founding of the Al-Qassam Brigades
Israel considers him one of the most important founders of the Martyr Aziz Al-Qassam Brigades in the West Bank. Israel accused him of being behind the kidnapping of three settlers in Hebron, which led to the demolition of his home. He began establishing and organizing a military apparatus for the movement in the West Bank in 1991-1992, which contributed to the actual launch of the Al-Qassam Brigades in the West Bank in 1992. He was arrested for more than 18 years in Israeli prisons. When he was last released in 2010, he was deported to Syria for three years, then left to Turkey with the escalation of the Syrian crisis, and is believed to have played a pivotal role in completing the Shalit deal.
Saleh Al-Arouri in Israeli Prisons
He was administratively detained during the years 1990-1991-1992 until 2007 (15 years) on charges of forming the first cells of the Al-Qassam Brigades in the West Bank. He was re-arrested three months after his release, and for three years until 2010, when the Israeli Supreme Court decided to release him and deport him outside of Palestine.
Saleh Al-Arouri - Deportation
He was deported to Syria and settled there for three years. With the beginning of the Syrian crisis, he left to Turkey in February 2012 and settled there. After years, he left Turkey and moved between several countries including Qatar and Malaysia, and finally settled in the southern suburbs of Lebanon.
Saleh Al-Arouri in Political Leadership
He was elected a member of the Political Bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement - Hamas in 2010 until October 2017. On October 9, 2017, Hamas announced the election of Al-Arouri as deputy to the head of the Political Bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement "Hamas," Ismail Haniyeh, during the convening of the Movement's Shura Council recently. He was also one of the negotiating team members who completed the Shalit Exchange deal.
Saleh Al-Arouri - Demolition of His Home
On June 20, 2014, Israeli forces began demolishing his house in the Arura area northwest of Ramallah. In the middle of that night, the Al-Arouri family was handed a decision to demolish their home. Since the beginning of the campaign, Israeli forces had threatened to target the homes of Hamas leaders in the West Bank in response to the disappearance of three settlers in the West Bank seven days earlier. On November 1, 2023, Israeli forces again demolished his uninhabited house in Ramallah during the Al-Aqsa Flood battle.
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