Israel blows up home of senior Hamas leader in West Bank as the IDF continues to target the Islamist group’s top men

By William On Oct 31, 2023

Israeli forces destroyed the childhood home of Saleh al-Arouri, the exiled commander of Hamas forces, in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, as security forces continued their crackdown on the Islamist group’s leaders.

Arouri, the deputy of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, is currently believed to be living in southern Lebanon and is among a group of leaders handpicked by Israeli officials who have vowed to destroy Hamas in retaliation for the deadly October 7 attack on southern Lebanon. Israel.

A video shared by the IDF on building demolition work had been carried out.

The video also shows IDF explosives experts working in the middle of the night.

Several masked and armed soldiers can be seen unwinding the detonator cord and inserting explosives into the walls of the empty house, which are covered in Arabic writing.

Ashes and dust flew from the house of Saleh al-Arouri, the exiled commander of Hamas forces, as IDF forces destroyed it

Saleh al-Arouri (pictured) is among a group of leaders singled out by Israeli officials as high-priority targets

Al-Arouri’s house, which local residents said was unoccupied, had been scheduled for demolition since last week and security forces blew it up in the early morning hours, according to witnesses.

Arouri, a veteran Hamas leader who spent 17 years in Israeli prisons, rose to prominence in 2014 by admitting to kidnapping and killing three Israeli teenagers from a West Bank settlement.

Since then, he has been behind a steady expansion of Hamas political cadres and gunmen in the West Bank, where Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s rival Fatah faction controls the Palestinian Authority.

After 18 months of steadily escalating violence in the West Bank, Israeli forces have stepped up fighting since the October 7 attack, making hundreds of arrests and conducting regular raids that have led to clashes.

At least 121 Palestinians have been killed there in the three weeks since the attack.

A Palestinian man from the al-Badrasawi family carries the body of his child killed in Israeli attacks to the Shuhada Al-Aqsa hospital in the central Gaza Strip on Tuesday.

Israeli Army (IDF) soldiers fire a 155mm howitzer at a secret location near the Gaza border in southern Israel on Tuesday

On Tuesday, a 14-year-old boy struck during a clash near the northern West Bank city of Nablus died of his injuries and in a separate incident, a 70-year-old man was killed during a clash in the city of Tubas.

In Gaza, the Hamas-led health ministry said on Tuesday that it had recorded the deaths of at least 219 people in the past day, bringing the death toll since the start of the war to 8,525.

Spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said at a televised news conference that the fatalities included 3,542 children and 2,187 women.

He said the main power generator at the Indonesian hospital in Beit Lahia, north of Gaza, has stopped working due to a lack of fuel.

He warned that more hospitals could be out of service in the coming days if fuel does not enter the besieged area.

A Palestinian man injured in Israeli attacks holds the body of a child killed in the attacks at Shuhada Al-Aqsa Hospital in the central Gaza Strip on Tuesday.

Palestinians search for survivors on Tuesday after an Israeli attack in Rafah, Gaza Strip

In the photo: Israeli soldiers during their ground offensive in Gaza

Wounded relatives of Palestinians who lost their lives after Israeli attacks mourn as the bodies are transported from Gaza’s Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital for burial on Tuesday.

The warning came as Israel said its forces fought Hamas gunmen in the terrorists’ vast tunnel network under Gaza, hitting 300 targets overnight, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu categorically ruled out a ceasefire to ease the humanitarian crisis .

The tunnels are a key target for Israel as it expands ground operations in Gaza to root out Hamas after the weapons disaster three weeks ago that killed more than 1,400 people.

In the fourth night of major ground operations in northern Gaza, the army said it had hit about 300 targets, including missile and rocket launching posts and “military compounds in underground tunnels” of Hamas terrorists.

In response, Hamas gunmen attacked Israeli forces with machine gun fire and anti-tank missiles. “The soldiers killed terrorists and ordered the air force to carry out real-time attacks on targets and terror infrastructure,” the IDF said.

The fighting came after Netanyahu on Monday evening brushed aside a call from 120 countries for a lasting humanitarian truce, saying such a ceasefire would mean a “surrender” to Hamas.

“This will not happen,” the prime minister said, pledging that Israel would “fight until this battle is won.” “Calls for a ceasefire are calls for Israel to surrender to Hamas,” he said.