The head of Mossad, Israel's intelligence service, vowed on Wednesday that the agency would find every member of Hamas involved in the October 7 attack on Israel, regardless of where they are. The pledge came a day after the deputy head of a Palestinian militant group was killed in an alleged Israeli attack in Beirut.
Israel declined to comment on reports that it was behind the killing, however, David Barne's comments are a strong indicator of it. He recalled the period after the murders during the 1972 Munich Olympics, when Mossad agents hunted down and killed Palestinian militants who were involved in the murders of Israeli athletes.
Israel was on high alert on Wednesday for a possible escalation of the conflict with the powerful Lebanese group Hezbollah after an attack in the Lebanese capital killed Saleh Aruri, the most prominent member of Hamas killed since the Gaza war broke out three months ago.
An attack on Hezbollah's stronghold in Beirut could lead to lower-intensity conflicts along the Lebanese border spilling over into a general war, the Associated Press agency reports.
In a speech on Wednesday night, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed revenge, repeating the group's statement that the "dangerous crime" of killing Aruri would not go "unanswered and unpunished." However, he did not provide details on when this could happen and in what form.
Nasrallah and Hezbollah have so far been careful in their strategic calculation in the conflict, balancing "between the need to support Gaza and the national interests of Lebanon."
Aruri's killing provided a morale boost to Israelis still recovering from the Oct. 7 attack, with militants resisting in Gaza and holding dozens of hostages.
Barnea said the Mossad was "committed to settling scores with the killers" and promised to pursue anyone involved "directly or indirectly", including "planners and executors".
"It will take time, as it took time after the massacre in Munich, but we will get hold of them wherever they are," he said. Barnea spoke at the funeral of former Mossad chief Zvi Zamir, who died at the age of 98.
Zamir was head of the intelligence agency at the time of the Munich attack, in which Palestinian militants killed 11 members of the Israeli Olympic delegation. Israel subsequently killed members of the Black September militant group that carried out the attack.
Hamas expects Hezbollah's support
Hezbollah and the Israeli army have exchanged fire almost daily across the Israeli-Lebanese border since the start of the war. However, it seems that Nasrallah does not want a further escalation, probably fearing a repeat of the 2006 war scenario, when Israel heavily bombed Beirut and southern Lebanon.
He avoided giving details of the possible retaliation for the murder of Aruri, although he said that he would speak about that topic again today.
However, he said that if Israel attacks Lebanon, "then it will be in the national interest to retaliate." We are not afraid of war", he said. "If the enemy thinks to go to war with Lebanon, then we will retaliate without any restrictions".
Israel declined to comment on reports that it was behind the killing of Saleh Aruri in Beirut, but Barne's comments are a strong indicator that the Mossad will not shy away from killing Hamas leaders abroad.
According to AP, Hezbollah has tens of thousands of rockets and missiles as well as various types of drones. The United States is trying to prevent the conflict from deepening, and as part of that effort, it has deployed two aircraft carriers and other military equipment to the region.
In a speech, Nasrallah praised Aruri as well as the group's October 7 attack, saying it "brought the Palestinian cause to the fore after it had been almost forgotten." He said that Israel has so far failed in any of its goals in Gaza and that its international reputation has been damaged.
The leaders of Hamas apparently expect Hezbollah to have their backs, the American agency points out.
In an interview with AP on Saturday, three days before Aruri's murder, Hamas political official Osama Hamdan, when asked if the group was worried about the possibility of Israel killing their officials in Lebanon, said that Hezbollah would not allow it to go unpunished and that a general war would break out. .
“Therefore, why would Israel do this? Does he want a war in Lebanon," he asked. "War can break out if Israel acts wrongly and aggressively, or war won't break out if Israel backs down and acts in a non-aggressive way towards Lebanon."
In an apparent escalation, Hezbollah announced on Wednesday that nine of its fighters had been killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon, the AP points out.
Hezbollah also said its fighters had carried out 11 attacks on Israeli positions along the border, including the use of powerful "burka" rockets, which the group has rarely used during the current conflict.
Aruri was deputy to Hamas's supreme political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, and was also a key link with Hezbollah.
A US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the Israeli military carried out the attack that killed Aruri and did not notify the White House in advance.
It would be the first time since the start of the war that Israel has killed the leader of Hamas, most of whom live in exile in the region, in another country.
The Mossad chief's comments indicate that more assassinations of Hamas members will follow, in line with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's threat to kill Hamas leaders wherever they are.
Israel is far from a "clean victory"
The focus of the war remains in Gaza, where Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant says Israel wants a "clean victory" over Hamas, which has ruled the territory since 2007.
Over 22.400 people were killed in the Israeli attacks on Gaza, two-thirds of whom were women and children, while 85 percent of the population left their homes.
In yesterday's Israeli attack on Khan Yunis in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, where there is a large number of people who fled from other parts of the enclave, 14 people were killed. Among the victims were nine children, an official told Reuters.
A quarter of the population in Gaza is facing starvation, United Nations data showed, while Israel is restricting the delivery of humanitarian aid.
As of Oct. 7, more than 400.000 cases of infectious diseases have been reported, UN spokeswoman Florencia Soto Ninjo said, including 180.000 people with respiratory infections and more than 136.000 cases of diarrhea - half of which are children under the age of five.
On the other hand, it appears that Israel is still far from achieving its goal of destroying Hamas and freeing the 129 hostages still held by the group.
Galant said that several thousand Hamas fighters remained in the north of Gaza, where the Israeli army has been fighting against them for two months and where entire neighborhoods have been razed to the ground.
Fierce fighting is taking place in central Gaza and Khan Yunis, where Israeli officials say Hamas' military infrastructure remains largely intact. Yahya Sinwar, the main leader of Hamas in Gaza, and his deputies manage to stay out of reach of Israeli forces for the time being.
In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces searched houses in the Nur al Shams refugee camp in the town of Tulkarm yesterday.
Residents told Reuters that 120 people were arrested and three houses were destroyed, including one belonging to a member of the Tulkarm Brigades, a militant group linked to the Palestinian faction Fatah.
Although Israel promises to destroy Hamas, long-term plans for the enclave are unclear. Foreign governments and organizations claim that any solution must also include Palestinian aspirations for an independent state, but this now seems difficult to achieve.
Galant yesterday hinted at Israel's plans for the next phase of the war in Gaza, with a new, more targeted approach in the northern part of the enclave and a continued pursuit of Hamas leaders in the south.
In the statement, he said that after the war, Hamas will no longer control Gaza, which will be administered by the Palestinian authorities unless there is a threat to Israel. Israel will retain operational freedom of action, but there will be no Israeli civilian presence.
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