Mossad head vows to kill all Hamas members involved in 7 October attack

The head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, David Barnea, vowed yesterday that the agency will kill every Hamas member involved in the movement’s 7 October attack against Israel. Barnea’s pledge came a day after the deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, Saleh Al-Arouri, was assassinated in Beirut in an Israeli missile strike.

The Israeli Kan channel described Barnea’s comment as the most explicit indication of the rogue state’s responsibility for Al-Arouri’s murder. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for the killing. Nevertheless, an Israeli army spokesman confirmed on Wednesday that the armed forces are on high alert and prepared for any scenario.

“Let every Arab mother know that if her son participated in the 7 October massacre, he will pay with his life for what he committed,” said Barnea during the funeral of former Mossad head Zvi Zamir. “We are in the middle of a war, and the Mossad today, as it was 50 years ago, is committed to holding accountable the killers who invaded the Gaza envelope on 7 October, including planners and instigators of the attack.”

The Islamic Resistance Movement launched Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October against Israeli military bases and settlements in the vicinity of Gaza, during which 1,139 Israeli soldiers and civilians were killed, many of them by “friendly fire” from the Israel Defence Forces, a fact which most commentators and Israeli officials tend to overlook. The operation was in response to “daily Israeli attacks against the Palestinian people and their sanctities,” said Hamas, notably Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem. Around 240 Israelis were captured during the operation, 110 of whom have already been exchanged for some of the thousands of Palestinians held by Israel.

More than 22,000 people have been killed in Israeli air and artillery strikes since 7 October, most of them children and women. Israeli bombs have laid much of the occupied Palestinian territory to waste. Thousands more Palestinians are buried under the rubble of their homes and other civilian infrastructure. Nearly all the enclave’s 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes, many several times, and they are engulfed by a humanitarian catastrophe with acute shortages of food, water and medical supplies.

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