Mohammad Austaz via Hamas Media Office/AP
- Saleh Arouri, deputy political head of Hamas, was killed in a drone strike on Tuesday.
- He had been on Israel's hit list for years, accused of orchestrating attacks in the West Bank.
- He said in an interview last August that he was living on "borrowed time."
The Hamas official who was killed in a drone strike in Beirut, Lebanon, said in recent interview he was "living on borrowed time."
Saleh Arouri, the deputy political head of Hamas and founder of the group's military wing, was killed in a strike on an apartment building on Tuesday, the Associated Press reported.
Hamas and the Lebanese government said Israel was to blame, as did an unnamed US official who spoke to The Washington Post.
Israeli officials have not accepted responsibility for the attack, and declined to comment when approached by Business Insider.
While it tends not to claim specific attacks, Israel does have a history of assassinations, and has said publicly that its aim is to kill Hamas leaders wherever they are.
Hamas said that six other people died in the strike, which it said was carried out by a drone, per AP.
The Lebanese caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, condemned the attack as a "new Israeli crime," per Reuters.
According to Reuters, when asked to confirm if Israel ordered the hit, Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari did not answer directly.
He instead told a media briefing: "We are focused on killing Hamas."
Arouri, 57, had been on Israel's hit list for years, accused of orchestrating attacks in the West Bank.
Asked about attempts to assassinate him during an interview with the Lebanese outlet Al-Mayadeen last August, Arouri said: "It is not strange for us for the commanders and cadres of the movement to be martyred."
He added: "I never expected to reach this age, so I am living on borrowed time."
According to the AP, Arouri kept a low profile since October 7, when Hamas launched a terrorist attack on Israel, killing some 1,200 people.