‘Israel determined to kill Hamas leaders in Turkey, Lebanon, Qatar’: Shin Bet Chief Ronen Bar

In a recording by the Kan Public Broadcaster on December 04, 2023, the Chief of the Shin Bet, more popularly known as Israel Security Agency, Ronen Bar, said that Israel is determined to kill Hamas in every location in the world, including Turkey, Lebanon, and Qatar.

Bar’s Address

“In every location, in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Turkey, Qatar, everyone. It will take a few years, but we will be there in order to do it. The cabinet has set a goal for us, to take out Hamas, and we are determined to do it; this is our Munich,” he could be heard saying in the recordings referencing the year-long Israeli operation to assassinate terrorists responsible for the killing of Israeli athletes in Munich in 1972.

In the recording, Bar admitted that his intelligence agency failed in its mission ahead of the Hamss onslaught, but the Shin Bet is now on an upward trend and already learning the lessons of the failures of that day and putting them into operation. He further went on to say that threats against Israel are unprecedented, and many of them are known to the public. “Our duty is to ensure security to the citizens of Israel. Unfortunately, we failed to do this on October 7,” he said.

Over the past few years, even before the latest events, the scale of threats to Israel has been unprecedented. But even in the latter case, the main thing is still hidden from view and a lot of things are hiding under the surface,” he said.

Israel’s Retaliatory Plans

Last Week, an American media organisation said that Israel is planning to hunt down Hamas leaders around the world once it shifts away from the theatre of the Gaza Strip. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered spy agencies to draw plans to assassinate the group’s top terrorist leaders outside of Gaza who live in Qatar and Turkey. Israel has already announced the killing of several top Commanders in Gaza during the fighting, though the local leaders of the group, Yahya Sinwar and his deputies, remain at large

According to a media report, some called the Israelis to immediately assassinate  Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, who lives in Doha and others following the October 7 attack. However, such actions on Qatari and Turkish soil could have strained or torpedoed diplomatic efforts to free hostages, and the idea was pushed off.

Aside from the assassinations abroad, the Mossad and the Shin Bet have reportedly formed a special operations centre tasked with tracking down and killing members of the Hamas commando unit that led the terrorist attack on October 7, 2023. According to a media organisation, the unit will be named after the World War-1 era Jewish underground organisation “Nili”, an acronym for a Hebrew phrase that translates as the Eternal One of Israel will not lie.”

Response from Hamas

An Israeli media organisation reported that Hamas responded to Bar’s remarks, saying that the threats to assassinate the leaders reflect the political and military crisis the enemy is in due to the resilience of the Palestinian people and the courageous resistance forces. It said that the “threats do not frighten the organisation leaders. They constitute a blatant violation of the sovereignty of the sister countries, which the senior officials of the enemy mentioned and constitute direct harm to the security of these countries.

Israel-Hamas War

War erupted on October 7 when some 3,000 terrorists led by Hamas burst through the border from the Gaza Strip and rampaged through southern regions, slaughtering over 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians, massacred amid brutal atrocities. At least 240 people of all ages, including small children and the elderly, were abducted and taken hostage in Gaza.

Munich Killings

In the 1970s, Israel embarked on a campaign to assassinate Palestinian terrorists involved in the Munich Olympics massacre. The efforts reportedly continued for over 20 years. Several Palestinian figures were killed, although there were conflicting claims on how many of them were directly involved in the massacre. The operation was depicted in the 1986 film “Sword of Gideon,” and Steven Spielberg’s 2005 movie “Munich.”