The History of Targeted Killings Attributed to Israel Worldwide

About 10 months have passed since the Gaza war, and two targeted attacks in quick succession in Beirut and Tehran have heightened concerns about the outbreak of a widespread war in the region. From the evening of Tuesday, August 1, to the early hours of Wednesday, August 2, two attacks within a few hours in Beirut and Tehran have exacerbated ongoing tensions in the region and added to the list of targeted killings attributed to Israel. Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas's political bureau, was targeted in northern Tehran on August 2 and killed along with one of his bodyguards. The extremist group Hamas, which is recognized as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the European Union, has identified Israel as responsible for the assassination of its leader in the Iranian capital. Israel has not officially claimed responsibility for this attack. However, just hours before Haniyeh's killing in Tehran, the Israeli army announced that it had killed Fawad Shukr, a senior commander of Hezbollah in an airstrike in Beirut. The Associated Press report looks back at targeted assassinations attributed to Israel over the years in various parts of the world. In July 2024, Israel targeted Mohammed Deif, the commander of Hamas's military wing, in a large-scale attack in southern Gaza, resulting in the deaths of at least 90 people, including several children, according to health officials in the enclave. The fate of Mr. Deif remains unknown. In April 2024, seven senior officers of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were killed in an Israeli attack on a building next to the Iranian embassy in Damascus, which Tehran referred to as its 'consulate' in Syria. This incident prompted the Islamic Republic to launch an unprecedented attack against Israel, firing more than 300 long-range missiles and drones at the country, of which Israel managed to intercept over 99%. These attacks resulted in only one injury, that of an Arab girl from the southern Israeli Bedouin community. In January 2024, Saleh al-Arouri, a senior Hamas official, was killed in an Israeli drone strike in Beirut. Al-Arouri was considered the second most important figure of Hamas outside the Palestinian territories and the fourth in the overall leadership of Hamas. He was known for his close ties with IRGC commanders and played a role in strengthening Hamas's relations with Tehran after a long period of cold relations. In December 2023, Razi Mousavi, the coordinator of logistical affairs for the Quds Force in Syria, was killed in a drone strike outside Damascus. The Islamic Republic identifies Israel as responsible for this attack. A review of operations and attacks attributed to Israel within Iran includes: In 2019, an Israeli airstrike on the home of Baha Abu al-Ata in Gaza resulted in the deaths of this senior commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and his wife. In 2012, Ahmad al-Jabari, the military commander of the extremist group Hamas, was killed in an airstrike on his moving vehicle in Gaza, which sparked an eight-day war between this group and Israel. Ahmad al-Jabari had held Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit captive for five and a half years but agreed to release him in a deal in November 2011, in which Israel freed 1,027 Palestinian security prisoners, including Yahya Sinwar. In 2010, Mahmoud Abdul-Raouf al-Mabhouh, responsible for supplying arms to Hamas's military wing, was killed in a Mossad operation in a hotel room in Dubai. Surveillance footage from the hotel showed 26 suspects of this operation disguised as tourists. Western media reported multiple times that some of these 'tourists' had gone on this 'mission' using passports from countries like Australia, which caused tensions in Israel's relations with some countries. Dubai's then-police chief, Dahi Khalfan, released videos and images of the team members, declaring the assassination as the work of Mossad agents. In 2008, Imad Mughniyeh, the military commander of Hezbollah, was killed by a bomb planted in his vehicle in Kafr Sousa, Damascus. Mughniyeh, known as Haj Rezwan, was accused of engineering suicide bombings during Lebanon's civil wars and planning the hijacking of a Trans World Airlines passenger plane in 1985, which resulted in the death of a U.S. Navy diver. Hezbollah identified Israel as responsible for the assassination of its military commander. Imad Mughniyeh's cousin, Jihad, was also killed in an Israeli attack in 2015. In 2004, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the founder of Hamas in 1987, was killed by Israeli helicopters while in his wheelchair. Yassin, who had been paralyzed since childhood, was considered the spiritual leader of this group. His successor, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, was killed less than a month later in an Israeli airstrike. In 2002, Salah Mustafa Muhammad Shahada, the second-in-command of Hamas's military wing, was killed by a one-ton bomb explosion in an apartment in Gaza City. In 1997, two Israeli agents with fake Canadian passports entered Amman, the capital of Jordan, to kill Khaled Mashal, the then-head of Hamas. These individuals poisoned him by spraying contaminated poison from a Coca-Cola bottle near Mashal's ear. The two were arrested, and King Hussein of Jordan threatened that if Khaled Mashal died, he would revoke the peace agreement his country had just signed with Israel, establishing full political relations. Ultimately, the situation ended with an antidote sent by Israel to a hospital in Amman and the release of the two agents, who returned to Israel. Khaled Mashal remains a senior member of Hamas. Following Ismail Haniyeh's assassination, it has been assessed that Khaled Mashal may again assume the leadership of Hamas's political bureau at least until the 'internal elections' of Hamas, and after a period of isolation, return to the forefront of the group's leadership. In 1996, Yahya Ayyash, nicknamed 'the Engineer' due to his skill in making deadly bombs for Hamas, was killed by answering a phone call that the Israeli internal security service had sent to him through Ayyash's relatives and trusted individuals, resulting in a small bomb explosion in Gaza City. His assassination led to a surge in deadly serial bombings on buses, restaurants, and many public places in Israeli cities, including Jerusalem. In 1995, Fathi Shiqaqi, the founder of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, was shot in the head. Many experts believe that this assassination was carried out by Israel. After Shiqaqi's death, this organization, close to the Islamic Republic of Iran, faced a prolonged internal crisis and struggled for several years to elect a secretary-general supported by the majority of its main activists. In 1988, Khalil al-Wazir, the military commander of the Palestine Liberation Organization, was killed in Tunisia. He was better known as Abu Jihad and was Yasser Arafat's deputy. In 2012, an Israeli article was published revealing details of Israel's attack in this regard, which was censored by Israeli military authorities. However, later several books were published in Israel depicting the mission of selected commandos of the Israeli army in that nighttime attack in Tunisia's capital. In 1973, Israeli commandos, led by Ehud Barak, who later became the chief of staff and then prime minister, targeted several leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization in their apartments in Beirut during a nighttime raid. Barak himself later recounted that he disguised himself as a charming woman to enter the commanders' residence with the commando men. As a result of that attack, Kamal Adwan, head of the PLO's operations in the West Bank, Muhammad Yusuf al-Najjar, a member of the PLO's executive committee, and Kamal Nasser, a poet and spokesperson for the organization, were killed. This operation was part of a series of assassinations targeting Palestinian leaders in retaliation for the killing of 11 Israeli coaches and athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Since 2010, as Israel's opposition to Iran's nuclear program has become clearer, a series of armed attacks on several 'Iranian nuclear program scientists' on Iranian soil have been attributed to Israel. The most significant of these attacks occurred in the fall of 2020, when Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, known as the father of Iran's nuclear program, was killed. The series of targeted assassinations attributed to joint operations of the Mossad and special forces of the army and Israeli security agencies has been documented in several books published in Israel. One of the best-selling recent books in this regard is 'Rise and First Kill Him (the Enemy)' by Dr. Ronen Bergman, a well-known journalist for Yedioth Ahronoth and The New York Times. After the Gaza war, this list has grown longer. However, the assassination of a senior Palestinian leader on Iranian soil has never happened before and apparently represents a new level of operations attributed to Israel. Israeli media had reported in recent months that Israel would face serious difficulties in eliminating Hamas leaders in countries like Turkey and Qatar and would need to look for opportunities to target them elsewhere.