Saleh Muhammad Sulayman al-Arouri, also transliterated as Salah al-Arouri or Salih al-Aruri, was a Palestinian politician and senior leader of Hamas who served as deputy chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau from October 2017 until his assassination in January 2024. He was a founding commander of its military wing, the Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades and also served as the Hamas's military commander of the West Bank, although he lived in Lebanon at the time of his assassination.
Al-Arouri was born in 'Arura near Ramallah in the West Bank in 1966. He enrolled at Hebron University to study Islamic Sharia in 1985, during which he was elected head of the Islamic faction at the university, and was recruited to Hamas during the First Intifada against the Israeli occupation in 1987. Starting in 1990, he was imprisoned by Israel multiple times for his Hamas activities, starting with administrative detention, and served his longest sentence for 15 years before his release in 2007. He was then exiled by Israel from the Palestinian territories to Syria, later moving to Turkey and finally settling in Lebanon in 2015.
He was described as "a capable, charismatic, suspicious, and shrewd operator, with excellent connections". He also served as a recruiter, and was actively involved in raising and transferring funds on behalf of Hamas. Al-Arouri was considered one of the architects of the 7 October attack on Israel, and was also known for his role in expanding Hamas' activities in the West Bank.
The U.S., which designated him as a terrorist in 2015, had also put a $5 million bounty on his head. He was assassinated in 2024 during the Israel–Hamas war by an Israeli strike. Al-Arouri was succeeded by Zaher Jabarin as Hamas's leader in the West Bank.
