The head of the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) said on Sunday that Israel will eliminate the leaders of Hamas in Qatar and Turkey.
“The Cabinet set us a goal. In the words of the street, it is to eliminate Hamas, and we are determined to do it. This is our ‘Munich,’ ” said Shin Bet director Ronen Bar, referring to “Operation Wrath of God,” which Israel launched against the terrorists responsible for the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972.
It was the first time Bar had commented on the Gaza war, according to Channel 11.
Bar was repeating guidance handed down by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who told reporters on Nov. 22, “I have instructed the Mossad to act against the heads of Hamas wherever they are.”
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said at the same press conference that Hamas leaders were living on “borrowed time.”
“They are marked for death,” he said. “The struggle is worldwide, both the terrorists in Gaza and those who fly in expensive planes.”
Israeli officials told The Wall Street Journal that plans are in the works to target Hamas leaders in Lebanon, Turkey and Qatar, a Gulf state that has allowed the terror group to run a political office in Doha for a decade.
Israel has experience in carrying out targeted assassinations overseas. Citing the book, “Rise and Kill First” by Israeli journalist Ronen Bergman, the Journal reports that Israel has conducted more than 2,700 such operations since World War II.
The most recent, well-publicized assassination attributed to Israel was of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in November 2020. was shot to death while driving in Abs0ard, east of Tehran.
It’s also widely accepted that Mossad agents, disguised as tourists and hotel staff, were behind the January 2010 assassination of Hamas leader Mahmoud al Mabhouh in Dubai.
In 1997, Netanyahu, then serving his first term as prime minister, ordered a hit on Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in Jordan. Mossad agents injected Mashaal with poison but were captured. The fallout led to the release of Palestinian prisoners, the most high-profile of them being Hamas’s spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
Yassin was assassinated via IDF helicopter in the Gaza Strip in 2004, an operation personally overseen by then-Prime Minister of Israel Ariel Sharon.
