The assassination of a Hamas leader by an Israeli special forces team triggered a rocket barrage from the Islamist government of Gaza, and hastily arranged ceasefire.
The exchange demonstrated the high priority that assassination holds in Israel’s strategy of occupation.
A commando squad entered Gaza in civilian clothes and killed Nour Baraka, identified as senior Hama leaders. A senior Israeli officer was killed in the exchange of gunfire.
Hamas retaliated with rocket fire on the Israeli city of Ashkelon, destroying a bus and causing scattered injuries.
While the headlines suggest the proverbial “cycle of violence” is to blame, the facts on the ground indicate the initiative came from Israel.
Al Jazeera reports.
The killing was one of many assassinations carried out by Israel that targeted not only Hamas members, but also individuals affiliated to other groups including the Islamic Jihad movement, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and Fatah – the ruling party in the occupied West Bank.
The Al-Jazeera reports lists seven assassination since 2004, which Palestinians blamed on Mossad, Shin Bet (Israel’s domestic security forces) or the Israeli Defense Forces.
Targeting Leaders
Israel’s assassination policy is detailed in Ronen Bergman’s best-seller, Rise First and Kill. Bergman, an Israeli journalist with excellent connections, writes that “Since World War II, Israel has assassinated more people than any other country in the Western world.”
According to Bergman, Israel killed 1,000 leaders before the Palestinian Second Intifada in 2000, perpetrated 168 successful “liquidations” during that intifada, and has executed 800 “targeted killings” since then.
Writing in The Intercept, Middle East correspondent Charles Glass argues the United States’ targeted assassination programs have killed more people. which is plausible.
What is beyond dispute is that Israel and the United States have no rivals in targeted assassinations.
