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 also 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 up on 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.

Discussed articles include:

Live blog January 2, 2024

Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri killed in alleged Israeli strike in Beirut

Saleh al-Arouri: Mastermind of Hamas terrorism in West Bank, hostage deal negotiator

Hezbollah vows revenge for a Hamas chief killed in Beirut; IDF ‘at very high readiness’

In rubble of parents’ home, scion of Be’eri founders not sure he can bear to move back

Musicians read, sing and strum to poems of hostage Amiram Cooper, 84, as worries mount

THOSE WE HAVE LOST: Civilians and soldiers killed in Hamas's onslaught on Israel

THOSE WE ARE MISSING: The hostages and victims whose fate is still unknown

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IMAGE: Investigators stand on an apartment building where an alleged Israeli strike killed top Hamas political leader Saleh Arouri, in the southern suburb of Beirut that is a Hezbollah stronghold, Lebanon, Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

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