Missiles, explosives and bullets: Is assassination an effective tool for Israel?

Assassination operations began in an early period of Zionist history, that is, with the beginning of the formation of Zionist gangs. The main motive was reaction and revenge against figures who harmed Zionism or stood against it, for example, Zionist gangs stormed Arab towns and tortured and executed Palestinians, including the Bedouin policeman Arif Al-Arsan who was shot dead in 1916, they even carried out operations against British figures for refusing the immigration of British Jews to Palestine.

Perhaps the assassinations did not take their institutional form until after the establishment of the occupying state in 1948, assassination has become a tool used according to specific political goals, such as Israel’s pursuit of Arab scholars and their liquidation, to keep the surrounding Arab countries scientifically and militarily weak, as happened with the Iraqi nuclear test scientists and Egyptian scientists.

After the launch of guerrilla action in the 1960s and the expansion of the power of Palestinian organisations in the 1970s, Israel used the policy of assassinations to achieve several goals. Perhaps the most notable of these was its attempt to sever the connection between the PLO factions and other revolutionary organisations, such as the Japanese Red Army. This was done by assassinating those responsible for organising these relations, such as Wadih Haddad, who had distinguished relations with various revolutionary organisations around the world and used them to confront Israel.

It also targeted key figures in Palestinian military and political circles. The assassinations included Ghassan Kanafani, Abu Hassan Salama, Kamal Adwan, Khalil Al-Wazir and many other Palestinian leaders.

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As for the methods of assassination, they have many forms: planting explosives in the person’s car, as in the assassination of Kanafani in Beirut, or planting them in his home, such as the assassination of Mahmoud Al-Hamshari in Paris, or targeting him with bullets, like the assassination of Basil Al-Kubaisi in Paris, or through poison, as happened with Wadih Haddad in Iraq.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Israel sought to eliminate everyone involved in armed military action in order to make the “peace negotiations” successful, such as Khalil Al-Wazir Abu Jihad. At the same time, the Israeli perspective has become more directed towards emerging Islamic organisations such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad. They did not stop carrying out operations against the occupation in the occupied territories, and accordingly assassinations were carried out against prominent figures such as Yahya Ayyash and Fathi Al-Shaqaqi in an attempt to stop the resistance operations, but they began to increase after these assassinations.

Assassinations continued in order to stop the operations until the Second Intifada, during which Israel benefitted greatly from the absence of the international factor, which stopped hearing and seeing what it was doing, specifically after the events of 11 September. The occupation intended to liquidate all the leaders, whether political or military, so carried out the assassination of Abu Ali Mustafa, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Salah Shehadeh, Raed Al-Karmi and many others, with the aim of stopping the uprising and the associated operations.

What distinguished the assassinations in this period was the frequent and intense use of aerial bombardment. The bombing was often devastating, targeting the surrounding area, including residents and buildings, with the aim of making them pay the price of being an incubator for the resistance. It also aimed to instil fear in order to achieve the greatest possible degree of deterrence in the hearts of the resistance fighters, but despite this, the uprising continued for years.

After the end of the intifada, assassination operations focused on the Gaza Strip, as it was the main arena in which the armed resistance became active and where military power had accumulated. During the various wars and attacks on Gaza from 2008 to the present day, the occupation was able to assassinate some resistance leaders, such as Ahmed Al-Jaabari, Raed Al-Attar, Bahaa Abu Al-Atta and Jihad Al-Ghannam, while assassinations also continued abroad. Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh was assassinated in Dubai in 2010, and in 2016 Muhammad Al-Zawari was assassinated in Tunisia and Omar Al-Nayef in Bulgaria.

As for the West Bank, it witnessed a decline in assassination operations after the intifada. In 2010 Nashaat Al-Karmi was assassinated, in 2014 Marwan Al-Qawasmi and Amer Abu Aisha were assassinated, in 2017 Basil Al-Araj was assassinated, in 2018 Ahmed Jarrar and Ashraf Naalwa were assassinated, and in 2019 Omar Abu Laila was assassinated. These are just some of the names. What is common is that the assassination is carried out through an Israeli special force that infiltrates a location.

After the Battle of the Sword of Jerusalem in 2021, a new phase began. This led to the formation of military cells, starting with the Jenin Brigade and the Nablus Brigade. Then it rolled on to Jericho, Tulkarm, Tubas and other areas. In light of the increase in the pace of resistance activities in the West Bank, assassinations have returned once again, perhaps the most obvious of them was the assassination of Adham Mabrouka (the Chechen), Muhammad Al-Dakhil and Ashraf Al-Mabaslet, while they were driving in their car during the day in the centre of Nablus. Their assassination in this exaggerated manner was an attempt by the occupation to eliminate a situation that was forming and which was expected to expand. The assassination of Tamer Al-Kilani, by booby-trapping a motorcycle he passed by in the Old City, was an exceptional event that took people back to the methods used during the Second Intifada.

The occupation also assassinated Suhaib Al-Ghoul, Muhammad Owais and Ashraf Al-Saadi, using a drone while they were carrying out a shooting operation near the Al-Jalama checkpoint. According to the army’s statement, this is the first aerial bombardment it has carried out in the occupied West Bank since 2006.

As usual, the aim of such assassinations was to deter a generation of young people from resisting. As usual, the matter did not succeed and the confrontations expanded in the West Bank.

Some – who believe that “Israel is an unbeatable force” – think that the mere issuance of the assassination decision means inevitable death, but history and its events belie this belief, there are many examples of this, perhaps the most prominent of which is Israel’s failure to reach the perpetrators of the Munich Olympics operation in 1972. Palestinian figures unrelated to the operation were assassinated to cover up their failure, according to one of the officials in the operation.

Another failure suffered by Israel was the attempt to assassinate Khaled Meshal in Jordan in 1997. Despite successfully poisoning Meshal, the perpetrators were arrested, and the occupation entered into a diplomatic crisis with Jordan, which resulted in the delivery of the antidote to rescue the Hamas leader and release Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in an exchange deal.

Likewise, the Israeli occupation failed in its attempt to assassinate Islamic Jihad military official Akram Al-Ajouri in Syria in 2019.

In the current scene, the pace of assassinations has only increased, and resistance work has also increased. The assassination of Jamil Al-Amouri was the reason for the continuation and expansion of the Jenin Brigade, and the assassination of Ibrahim Al-Nabulsi gave many reasons to join the resistance.

Then the occupation assassinated Samih Abu Al-Wafa, Hussam Abu Dhaiba, Awas Hanoun, Khairy Shaheen, Jameel Alzebdeh, Shireen Abu Akleh and Tayseer Al-Jaabari, Khaled Mansour, Ibrahim Al-Nabulsi, Jihad Al-Ghannam and Saleh Al-Arouri and Fayek Al-Mabhouh.

Today, Israel assassinated Commander Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of the Hamas movement, with a guided missile in the Iranian capital, Tehran, and before him, the second in command of Lebanese Hezbollah, Fouad Shukr.

But previous assassinations have shown that Israel has not killed one resistance member without him propelling many more to fight back against its occupation and aggression.

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The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.