At least four people, including senior Hamas official Saleh Arouri, were killed in an Israeli drone strike in Lebanon's capital Beirut on Tuesday.

Leaders of Hamas' armed wing Al Qassam Brigades, Samir Findi Abu Amer and Azzam Al-Aqraa Abu Ammar, were also killed in the Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs of Dahiyeh

The Manar television station of Hezbollah, the Lebanese armed group that has a stronghold in the area, said an explosion was heard near the Hadi Nasrallah highway close to a road junction.

It gave no details of the explosion, which comes a day before a speech by Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

A Reuters witness said the explosion may have been caused by a drone that hit the second floor of a building in the crowded neighborhood.

In response to questions from Reuters, the Israeli military said it does not respond to reports in the foreign media. Arouri was a senior official in Hamas's politburo but was known to be deeply involved in its military affairs.

Hezbollah, an ally of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, has been exchanging near-daily fire with Israel across Lebanon's southern frontier since the eruption of the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza in early October.

Israeli air strikes and shelling have killed more than 100 Hezbollah fighters and nearly two dozen civilians, including children, elderly and several journalists, according to Hezbollah and security sources.

Arouri was key player until death in sudden Israeli strike

The deputy Hamas leader had long expected the Israeli drone strike that killed him in Beirut on Tuesday.

"I am waiting for martyrdom and think that I lived too long," he said in August, as he urged Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank to take up arms amid a surge of violence.

Hamas has confirmed his death but has not otherwise commented. Islamic Jihad, an allied group, swore revenge for his killing in a statement on Tuesday, saying it would "not go unpunished".

Within Hamas, Arouri was described as a leading advocate of reconciliation between rival Palestinian factions, enjoying a good relationship with Fatah, the party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas which holds sway in the West Bank.

Hamas and Fatah have been at odds for years, fighting a brief civil war in 2007 when Hamas seized power in Gaza, though the rival organizations have continued to hold periodic negotiations.

Born in the town of Arura near the city of Ramallah in the West Bank in 1966, Arouri attended local schools for his primary education and graduated from high school in 1984.

In 1992, he enrolled at Hebron University in the southern West Bank and graduated with a bachelor's degree in Islamic Sharia.

He joined the Muslim Brotherhood at an early age and led the Islamic Student Action at Hebron University in 1985.

After the Hamas movement was established at the end of 1987 by leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, Arouri joined its ranks.

The Israeli army jailed Arouri in administrative detention without trial for limited periods between 1990 and 1992 due to his involvement with the Hamas.

Arouri is considered one of the founders of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas. Between 1991 and 1992, he established the cells of the movement's military apparatus in the West Bank.

In 1992, the Israeli army re-arrested him and sentenced him to 15 years in prison for forming the initial cells of the Al-Qassam Brigades in the West Bank.

Throughout his detentions, he played a prominent role in leading Hamas and in struggling against prison administrations.

Arouri was released in 2007, but Israel re-arrested him three months later for three years until 2010. The Israeli Supreme Court decided then to release him and exile him from Palestine.

He was later deported to Syria, where he resided for three years before leaving, living as a nomad between several countries. He later moved to Lebanon until his assassination on Jan. 2.

Following his release in 2010, Arouri was selected as a member of the political bureau of Hamas.

Arouri was one of Hamas' negotiators to complete the prisoner exchange deal in 2011 with Israel through Egyptian mediation. As part of the agreement, Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held captive by Hamas, was released in exchange for the release of 1,027 Palestinian detainees from Israeli prisons.

On July 31, 2021, Arouri was re-elected as the deputy chief of Hamas' political bureau for the second time. In addition to this position, he assumed the role of the movement's leader in the West Bank.

On Oct. 9, 2017, he was elected again as the deputy chief of the political bureau. Furthermore, Arouri was elected as Hamas' chief of the West Bank region on July 4, 2021.

In November 2018, the US Department of State allocated a reward of $5 million for information leading to Arouri, along with leaders of the Lebanese Hezbollah group.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury had designated him on its terrorism list in 2015.

Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Oct. 25 that six Hamas leaders were "in the crosshairs of Israeli fire," including Arouri.

The Israeli army stormed Arouri's house on Oct. 31 in the town of Arura near Ramallah in the West Bank.

The raid followed days of extensive operations against Hamas activists in the town, making his house into an investigative center.