Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the Mossad to hunt down Hamas's top brass. It is reported that Israeli intelligence is planning an assassination operation against the Hamas leadership, and their targets include senior Hamas leaders living in Lebanon, Turkey and Qatar. This operation will be a continuation of years of secret Israeli assassinations that have provoked strong condemnation from the international community. According to former Israeli revelations, Israel has assassinated a high-ranking Allah Party official with a car bomb in Syria and killed an Iranian nuclear scientist with a remote-controlled gun in Iran.
On November 22, Netanyahu made public his intentions in a nationally televised address, much to the surprise of some Israelis who wanted to keep a low profile, Wall Street reported. "I have instructed the Mossad to take action against the top Hamas leadership, no matter where they are hiding," Netanyahu said. Israeli Defense Minister Gallant also said in the same speech that the lives of Hamas's top brass were "in jeopardy."
Israel** said it was trying to eliminate or capture top Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip. They say that the question now facing the Israeli leadership is not whether to assassinate the top Hamas leaders in other countries, but how to do it.
According to the report, Israel's plan for the assassination of senior Hamas officials was developed shortly after the October 7 attack. Some Israelis** want to act immediately to assassinate Khaled Meshaal, one of Hamas's founders, who is currently living in Qatar, and other senior Hamas officials abroad. However, Israel** said that Israel had never carried out any assassination in Qatar and that Israel feared that doing so after 7 October could affect negotiations for the release of the kidnapped. Those concerns delayed the assassination, they said, but plans were still ongoing.
Wall Street** notes that targeted assassinations in other countries could violate international law and could damage Israel's relations with other countries. However, in past practice, Israel bore the consequences of assassinations.
According to the book "Preemptive Strike" written by Israeli journalist Ronan Bergman, Israel has carried out more than 2,700 assassinations since World War II. In 1997, during his first term as prime minister, Netanyahu ordered Israel** to poison Maishaal, who was living in Jordan at the time, but the operation failed. In the end, Netanyahu was forced to release Hamas's spiritual leader, Ahmed Yassin, and 70 other Palestinian prisoners.