Daily Briefing Jan. 3: Day 89 - Who was West Bank Hamas terror head Saleh al-Arouri?

Arab affairs reporter Gianluca Pacchiani on the targeted killing of Hamas deputy leader; culture editor Jessica Steinberg on how hostage families and artists raise awareness

Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

Today is day 89 of the war. Arab affairs reporter Gianluca Pacchiani and culture editor Jessica Steinberg join host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today’s podcast.

Saleh al-Arouri was killed Tuesday evening in an alleged Israeli drone strike in the Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, according to Hamas and Hezbollah officials. Hamas confirmed that seven people in total were killed in the explosion, a precision strike on a third-floor apartment said to serve as an office for the terror group. The deputy leader of Hamas abroad, Arouri was seen as the group’s prime orchestrator of West Bank terrorism. Pacchiani shares more.

Steinberg visited the decimated Kibbutz Be’eri last week with member Yuval Haran, whose family was murdered and taken hostage by Hamas on October 7. She gives impressions.

This week in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, Israeli musician Ehud Banai stepped onto one of the cement platforms, guitar in hand, and read and strummed along to the poems of Amiram Cooper, 84, one of the two oldest of the hostages still being held by terrorists in Gaza. Steinberg was there.

For the latest updates, please look at The Times of Israel’s ongoing live blog.