Israeli forces raid Samaria home of Hamas’s second-in-command

Israeli soldiers entered al-Arouri’s home in the village of Arura, located north of Ramallah, at dawn on Saturday and arrested more than 20 people.

By JNS 

Israeli troops raided on Saturday the Samaria home of top Hamas terrorist Saleh al-Arouri and detained several of his relatives, according to reports.

Al-Arouri, who is currently based in Lebanon and Hamas’s top commander in Judea and Samaria, is Ismail Haniyeh’s deputy.

Israeli soldiers entered al-Arouri’s home in the village of Arura, located north of Ramallah, at dawn on Saturday and arrested more than 20 people, including one of his brothers and nine of his nephews, according to AFP.

Israeli forces reportedly thereafter raised a banner over the home showing al-Arouri on the backdrop of an Israeli flag and captioned: “This was the house of Saleh al-Arouri and has become the headquarters of Abu al-Nimer—Israeli intelligence.”

Abu al-Nimer is reportedly an alias for the Israeli intelligence officer responsible for the area.

Al-Arouri is credited with orchestrating a deep relationship between Hamas and Iran and played a key role in re-establishing the Palestinian terrorist group’s ties with Damascus, which were severed in 2012 during the Syrian Civil War.

He was recruited into Hamas in 1985 while studying Sharia law at Hebron University and was imprisoned in Israel for 18 years over several stints before being deported to Syria in 2010.

Overnight Friday, the IDF arrested a total of 89 Palestinians, including 68 Hamas terrorists, during raids across Judea and Samaria.

Israeli forces also demolished the home of the Hamas terrorist responsible for the murder of American-Israeli Elan Ganeles on Feb. 27 near Jericho.