With the Israel-Hamas war nearing two months, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly ordered the country’s top spy agencies to find and take down Hamas leaders not just in the Gaza Strip but around the world. Israel’s intelligence services are working on plans to execute the order, setting the stage for a year-long campaign to find Hamas terrorists responsible for the October 7 attack, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported.
The spy agencies are working to hunt down Hamas leaders in Turkey, Lebanon, and Qatar – that has allowed Hamas to run a political office in its capital city of Doha for a decade, the WSJ report added, citing officials. Qatar has also played a crucial role in bringing about a seven-day truce in Gaza that led to the release of over 100 hostages by Hamas from Gaza.Qatar, Iran, Russia, Turkey and Lebanon, have for years, as per the WSJ report, provided Hamas – designated as a terrorist group by the US – with a measure of protection. Israel, however, has refrained from targeting the Palestinian group at times to keep diplomatic crises at bay.
Although such plans should typically be kept a secret, Netanyahu along with his other top officials, talked about the same during a nationwide address on November 22. “I have instructed the Mossad (Israel’s foreign intelligence service) to act against the heads of Hamas wherever they are,” the Israeli Prime Minister said.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who was with Netanyahu at the same address, said that Hamas leaders are living on “borrowed time”. “They are marked for death. The struggle is worldwide, both the terrorists in Gaza and those who fly in expensive planes,” Gallant added.Israeli officials, according to the WSJ report, said the question that now remains is not whether to kill Hamas leaders outside of Gaza but where and how. As part of the effort, Israel is also looking at whether thousands of low-level Hamas fighters could be expelled from Gaza as a way to cut the ongoing war short.Israel’s open revelation of their plan to hunt down and kill Hamas leaders is similar to their stance against the individuals responsible for the Palestinian terrorist attack at the 1972 Munich Olympics, in which 11 Israeli athletes were killed.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s order to find and kill Hamas leaders has triggered a debate among former intelligence officials in Israel.Efraim Halevy, ex-Mossad director, called it ill-advised, according to the WSJ report. He said that eliminating Hamas leaders wouldn’t remove the threat to Israel, and instead, has the potential to incite the group’s followers and cause even worse dangers.”Pursuing Hamas on a worldwide scale and trying to systematically remove all its leaders from this world is a desire to exact revenge, not a desire to achieve a strategic aim,” WSJ quoted Halevy as saying.A retired Israeli general, however, sided with Netanyahu’s campaign, calling it the “right policy” and “what justice demands”. “All the Hamas leaders, all those who participated in the attack, who planned the attack, who ordered the attack, should be brought to justice or eliminated,” Amos Yadlin, a retired Israeli general who once led the military’s intelligence agency, told WSJ.
The latest campaign to remove Hamas leaders is an addition to numerous such clandestine operations led by Israel in the past. For instance, Israeli assassins have hunted down Palestinian militants in Beirut, Lebanon, dressed as women, and killed a Hamas leader in Dubai disguised as tourists. Israel has also used a car bomb to kill a Hezbollah leader in Syria, and a remote-controlled rifle to kill a nuclear scientist in Iran, WSJ reported, citing former Israeli officials.The new plan would also mark a second chance for the Israeli Prime Minister, who ordered a failed attempt to poison Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Jordan in 1997. Netanyahu was then serving his first term as the Israeli premier. An Israeli team entered Jordan posing as Canadian tourists and attacked Meshaal outside the Hamas political office in Amman. One Israeli assassin sprayed toxin into Meshaal’s ear but he and another of his team member were captured before they could escape.The result was that Meshaal fell into a coma, and the then US President Bill Clinton stepped in to press Netanyahu to end the crisis after Jordan threatened to terminate its peace treaty with Israel. The then Mossad chief was sent to Amman with the antidote that ultimately saved Meshaal’s life, which helped Israel secure the release of its operatives. However, Israel had to release Hamas spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, and 70 other Palestinian prisoners, in return.According to the WSJ report, some Israeli officials wanted to launch an immediate campaign to kill Meshaal and other Hamas leaders living overseas. The officials were particularly angered by a video of Meshaal and other Hamas leaders, including its top political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, rejoicing and praying at one of their offices while watching live news coverage of the October 7 attacks.
