With a temporary ceasefire in place and the first release of hostages scheduled for around 1 a.m., Friday, Eastern Time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made it clear that when this ceasefire ends, the destruction of Hamas, particularly its leadership, remains Israel's strategic goal.
But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a nationally televised news conference that the war would resume after the truce expires. Israel’s goals are to destroy Hamas’ military capabilities and return all 240 hostages held captive in Gaza.
“I want to be clear. The war is continuing. The war is continuing. We will continue it until we achieve all our goals,” Netanyahu said, adding he had delivered the same message in a phone call to U.S. President Joe Biden. He also said he had instructed the Mossad spy agency to hunt down Hamas’ exiled leadership “wherever they are.”
Israel has a history of hunting down Islamic terrorists. In the aftermath of the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre, Prime Minister Golda Meir authorized Operation Wrath of God to hunt down Black September and Fatah leaders and operatives who were involved in the attack in any way.
The hit squad first killed Wael Zwaiter, a PLO organizer and cousin of Yāsir ʿArafāt, shooting him in the lobby of his Rome apartment building in October 1972. Mahmoud Hamshari, the PLO representative in Paris, was targeted next. After a Wrath of God member, posing as an Italian journalist, scheduled a telephone interview with Hamshari in December 1972, Wrath of God explosives experts broke into his home and planted a bomb in his telephone. Hamshari was called at the time arranged for the interview, and, when he identified himself, the bomb was activated remotely. He died in the explosion.
Four other suspects—Basil al-Kubaisi, Hussein Abad al-Chir, Zaid Muchassi, and Mohammed Boudia—were all killed during the next few months. The most spectacular mission in the Wrath of God campaign took place in April 1973. Ehud Barak, the leader of the IDF’s elite Sayeret Matcal unit, developed an audacious plan to strike at PLO leadership. Dubbed Operation Spring of Youth, the mission involved the amphibious insertion of commando teams into Beirut. Once ashore, they coordinated their efforts with Mossad agents already in the city and deflected attention by donning civilian clothing. While other commando teams staged diversionary raids throughout the city and a squad of Israeli paratroopers assaulted the PFLP headquarters, the main force targeted Muhammad Youssef Al-Najjar, Kamal Adwan, and Kamal Nasser, killing all three.
Mossad has a long memory.
It took seven years, but a Mossad used a car bomb on a Beirut street to finish off Ali Hassan Salameh, aka the Red Prince, the Black September chief of operations. The hunt continued up until at least February 1988, when two senior Palestinian terrorists were killed and a third severely wounded in a bombing in Cyprus.
Hamas chief of logistics and weapons procurement Mahmoud al-Mabhouh organized the kidnapping and murder of two Israeli soldiers, Avi Sasportas, and Ilan Sa'adron, in 1989. The bill finally came due in a 5-star hotel in Dubai where an 18-man Mossad hit squad caught up with him.
This kind of operation has the ability to go pear-shaped. While hunting planners of the 1972 Munich Massacre, Israeli intelligence mistakenly identified a Moroccan waiter as the Red Prince. His killing led to the capture of six of the 15-man assassination cell and a major diplomatic black-eye for Israel.
In the case of the al-Mabhouh hit, Dubai was able to make a convincing case that Israel was manufacturing fake passports from several countries, and two of Mossad's highly placed agents inside of the PLO were exposed and extradited to Dubai.
A hunt for Hamas's upper echelons was always going to be difficult. It will be more difficult after a pledge by Netanyahu to bring them to justice. Netanyahu has to know that. He also has to know that when the smoke clears from the Israel-Hamas War, he's going to be blamed for Israel being caught unawares. The downside of a blown covert mission may be worth it if he does achieve some success.