A StandWithUs UK Deep Dive

Precision Warfare:
Israel’s Covert Operations Targeting Terrorist Leaders

Since the October 7th massacre, Israel has launched a focused campaign to eliminate key figures in Hamas and Hezbollah. High-profile targets including Saleh al-Arouri, Marwan Issa, Mohammad Reza Zahedi, Muhammad Deif, Fuad Shukr, and Ismail Haniyeh have been successfully assassinated, showcasing Israel’s unmatched intelligence capabilities and determination to dismantle terrorist leadership.

In a nutshell:

Israel has a long history of targeting terror leaders, starting with “Operation Wrath of God” after the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre. Mossad assassinated key Palestine Liberation Organisation figures like Wael Zwaiter, Mahmoud Hamshari, and Ali Hasan Salameh. Following the October 7th massacre, Israel intensified its efforts against Hamas and other terror groups, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu authorising Mossad to target top leaders. Key figures like Ali Qadhi, Murad Abu Murad, and Billal al Kedra were quickly eliminated in Gaza.

On January 2nd, 2024, Israel made a significant impact by assassinating Saleh al-Arouri, a major Hamas leader, in Beirut. Subsequent strikes eliminated Marwan Issa, Mohammad Reza Zahedi, Muhammad Deif, Fuad Shukr, and Ismail Haniyeh. These operations demonstrate Israel’s capability to target high-profile terrorists globally, emphasising that no location is safe for those planning attacks against Israel. While the long-term effectiveness is debated, the immediate impact on terrorist operations is clear.

Firstly, a brief background to Israeli assassinations of terror leaders

Israel has developed a reputation for being great intelligence gatherers and executors of assassinations of significant terror leaders. Following the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Prime Minister Golda Meir authorised “Operation Wrath of G-d”. This operation tasked the Mossad with the objective to gather intelligence on those who were behind the planning of the Munich massacre who were hiding around the world, and to assassinate them.

Remains of Ali Hasan Salameh’s car after Mossad killed him

Within weeks, significant Palestinian terror leaders around the world turned up dead. Wael Zwaiter was found riddled with bullets in Rome in October 1972, Mahmoud Hamshari’s telephone exploded and killed him the following December, and Hussein Al-Bashir died in a hotel room bomb a month later. All of these men were leaders in the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) involved in the planning of the Munich massacre.

Over the following 15 years, PLO terror leaders were assassinated in locations all over the world through a number of different methods. Mossad operatives would use more covert methods, taking out their targets via gunfire or by planting explosives in cars or rooms. Their top target was Ali Hasan Salameh, the architect of the Munich massacre. They assassinated him with a car bomb in Beirut in 1978.

With Israeli agents being very successful at assassinations, over time it became more difficult to take out terror leaders. Aware of how vulnerable they could be, significant terror leaders began to take lower profiles and ensure they were residing in countries such as Qatar, Iran and Tunisia. This has meant that the IDF has had to take different measures and use tactics such as missile strikes.

Sheikh Ahmed Yassin

One of the most significant examples of this method was the assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the founder of Hamas, in March 2004. The IDF used missiles from a helicopter to strike Yassin’s convoy, killing him immediately.

Early response after October 7th

Since October 7th, Israel has been reminding the world that its arm is very long and powerful.

Days after the horrific massacres in southern Israeli, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that “every Hamas member is a dead man” and gave the Mossad authority to hunt down the very top leaders in Hamas and other terror organisations.

Within days of this authorisation, Hamas military leaders began to be taken out. On October 13th, Ali Qadhi – Hamas Nukhba leader on October 7th – was killed in a drone strike. That same day, a strike eliminated Murad Abu Murad – the Head of the Hamas aerial array. Two days later Billal al Kedra, the Hamas commander who led the massacre at Kfar Aza on October 7th, met his end by an airstrike. On October 31st, Ibrahim Biari was assassinated by an airstrike. Biari was a Nukhba commander who was part of the planning of the October 7th attacks.

These terrorists were all significant, but also lower-level commanders who could be easily replaced. They were also all taken out in Gaza, which has been an active warzone since October 8th.

Israel strikes a hard blow

Israel made its first significant mark on January 2nd, 2024. In Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, an airstrike on a building in the Dahieh suburb run by Hezbollah rocked the neighbourhood. Shortly afterwards, it was reported that Saleh al-Arouri had been killed. Al-Arouri was the most significant Hamas military leader outside of the Gaza Strip. He was a founder of the al-Qassam Brigades – the Hamas fighting forces – and he conducted much of their relationships with Hezbollah and other allies outside of Gaza, as well as leading Hamas operations in the West Bank.

Hezbollah and Lebanese authorities blamed Israel for the attack. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for the assassination of Al-Arouri, something which it is known to do over many years with other alleged assassinations. This leaves an element of ambiguity, which may be a psychological tactic against its enemies. The significance of al-Arouri’s assassination was that Hamas leaders were being sent a message that they are not safe anywhere, regardless of which country or organisation is protecting them.

Al-Arouri’s assassination was the first of six important operations to take out some of the most crucial leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Two months later, on March 10th, an airstrike in Nuseirat (a town in central Gaza) targeted Marwan Issa. It would take months (July 28th to be precise) to get final confirmation of Issa’s death, but it was a huge impact on Hamas’ military operations. Issa was deputy military commander of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades and a senior aide to Gaza military leader Muhammad Deif. Issa, who helped plan the October 7 attack, also served as the brigades’ liaison to Hamas’s political leadership and played a pivotal role in Hamas military preparedness and strategy.

The IRGC (Iran’s military forces) are the active part of their tentacles as they control their proxies across the Middle East in attacks against Israel. On 1st April, an airstrike on an IRGC building next to the Iranian embassy in Damascus killed Mohammad Reza Zahedi. Zahedi was a top commander in the IRGC Quds Force responsible for Syria and Lebanon, and he had specific links to Hezbollah. Zahedi was responsible for being Iran’s mouthpiece to Hezbollah and was involved in planning terror attacks against Israelis. Zahedi was the most senior regime official to be killed since the death of leading Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in Tehran in an assassination attributed to Israel four years ago. Like the strike on al-Arouri, Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement. The allegation was enough for the Iranian regime, and they responded by firing hundreds of missies and UAV (drones) at many locations in Israel on April 13th.

July 2024 has turned out to be a crucial month in the war against terror in the Middle East. On July 13th, Israel claimed that it had finally eliminated Muhammad Deif, arguably the most notorious member of Hamas. Deif was a longstanding member of Hamas’ military wing, the iconic figure for Hamas supporters in Gaza and a man who had evaded assassination 6 times prior to his death. Deif was the head of al-Qassam Brigades, the architect of many terror attacks against Israelis in the 1990s and 2000s, the man who planned the abduction of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, and the mastermind of the October 7th massacres. We covered his profile and the operation that killed him in a previous deep dive briefing, which you can read BY CLICKING HERE. Hamas denied his death, but on August 1st, the IDF released full confirmation that they had indeed eliminated him in the strike.

On July 30th and 31st, Israel dealt a double blow to its enemies in a dramatic few hours. Since October 8th, northern Israel has been dealing with continuous rocket and UAV attacks by Hezbollah. The IDF has been responding, but over time the two sides have been edging ever close to a full-scale war. On Saturday July 27th, a Hezbollah rocket hit a football pitch in the Druze town of Majdal Shams, where lots of children were playing. The blast had horrifying consequences, with 12 children killed, and many more injured. Despite Hezbollah denying their involvement, and even incredibly trying to falsely claim that the explosion was a misfired Iron Dome missile, Israel promised to respond to this attack.

On July 30th, a building in Beirut was hit by several missiles fired from a UAV drone. Within minutes, news was breaking that this was a targeted attack by the IDF against a top Hezbollah commander. Further information came through that the target was Fuad Shukr, the right-hand man to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and the top military commander in the terror group. Hezbollah strenuously denied that Shukr had been killed, but eventually announced his death following the discovery of his body in the rubble. The IDF received intelligence that Shukr was visiting a mistress and therefore decided to act by sending a UAV to fire several missiles at the building.

Haniyeh’s apartment after the assassination

Whilst the Middle East was still reeling from the strike in Beirut, a shocking development occurred in the Iranian capital of Tehran. An explosion at an IRGC compound had claimed the life of Ismail Haniyeh, the de facto chief of Hamas. Haniyeh had been the face of the so-called political bureau of the terror group since 2017 and had moved to Qatar (possibly to avoid Israeli assassination attempts). Haniyeh was in Tehran alongside other terror group leaders to celebrate the inauguration of the new Iranian President. Israel has not commented on the killing of Haniyeh, but it has not stopped Ayatollah Khamenei to order a retaliation against the Jewish State. Early reports had suggested that a missile had struck the apartment that Haniyeh was staying in, however a New York Times article on August 1st writes that an explosive had been smuggled into his room two months prior to the blast.

It is important to ask: are all these assassinations an effective strategy?

After the Munich Olympics massacre in 1972, Israel made a commitment to go for the very top leaders in the Palestine Liberation Organisation. For a decade they hunted some of the worst terrorists that the Middle East has seen and found them in all corners of the globe.

Many things are taken into consideration when a target is picked. Eliminating a high-level member is not always seen as worthwhile. The character and iconic status of the individual, as well as their professional effectiveness are considered. A great example of one who had both of these qualities was Qassem Soleimani, the former head of the IRGC. He was assassinated by the United States in January 2020, and one could argue that the IRGC has not recovered since then – such was the importance of Soleimani. Muhammad Deif is arguably the closest example to Soleimani that existed in Hamas, which is why Israel made so many attempts to assassinate him before finally achieving this aim in mid-July 2024. His character and professionalism make him almost impossible to replace in the Hamas military leadership. Such assassinations hurt the operations of these terror groups.

We have not seen such a concentrated effort against terror leaders since that operation. Israel has taken out many lower-level commanders in Hamas and has significantly eliminated some of the very top leaders in the terror groups of the Axis of Evil.

In February 1992, Israel assassinated Abbas al-Musawi. Musawi was a founder of Hezbollah, and at the time their Secretary-General. One would think that removing him as the top man at Hezbollah would be an effective strategy, but it allowed Hassan Nasrallah to succeed him. Nasrallah has been an influential and smarter leader of Hezbollah, suggesting that perhaps killing Musawi allowed a successor who has made the terror group a greater threat to Israel.

Khaled Mashal

There are examples of failed assassination attempts that have had a significant impact negatively on Israel, both in execution and location. In September 1997, Netanyahu (in his first stint as Prime Minister) ordered Mossad agents to smuggle themselves into Jordan and attempt to assassinate Khaled Mashal, who was Chief of Hamas at the time. The agents came up behind Mashal and transmitted a poison into him, however his bodyguards reacted and captured them. The poison worked quickly, Mashal was hospitalised, and his condition deteriorated quickly. King Hussein of Jordan was furious and demanded to Netanyahu that the antidote be provided, otherwise he would tear up the recent peace deal, sever any further diplomatic relations, and put the captured Mossad agents on trial. Netanyahu quickly agreed and provided the antidote, thus making the operation a failure. A lesson was learnt from this failure as undertaking such an operation within an ally’s borders is a big risk to diplomatic relations. The impact of this failure is felt today, as with Haniyeh being eliminated, Mashal is expected to return as the Chief of Hamas.

Potential civilian casualties is another important element that goes into the execution of an operation, and it can sometimes lead to failure. In September 2003, the IDF had a chance to take out several Hamas members who had gathered together in one location for a meeting. Among them were Muhammad Deif, Ismail Haniyeh, and Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. Fearing a possibility of lots of civilian casualties, the commander of the operation ordered that a quarter-ton bomb be used instead of a full ton. The bomb only took out the top floor, allowing those in the meeting on the ground floor to escape with their lives. Who knows how things may have been different. Yassin may have been eliminated the following year, but Deif and Haniyeh survived, living for another 20 years to lead Hamas and plan much terror against Israel, culminating in October 7th.

This year, Israel has eliminated some of the most dangerous architects of Middle Eastern terror. The coming months will hopefully provide a clearer picture of the impact of removing these individuals. However, what cannot be denied is that anywhere in the world, at any time, those who look to harm Israel will meet their end.