From Paris to Tehran: Israel’s long record of assassinating Palestinians

Hamas has confirmed that Israel killed its political and military leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza.

Rumours that Israeli forces had killed Sinwar in Rafah’s Tal as-Sultan neighbourhood of Gaza began to circulate on Thursday. The Israeli military said on Thursday that his body had been identified after he was killed the day before.

The assassination comes amid Israel’s devastating war on Gaza, in which more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, when Hamas fighters entered southern Israel in an assault during which 1,139 were killed, and 250 people were taken captive. Iran said it was investigating Sinwar’s killing.

Sinwar’s killing in Gaza follows a long pattern of assassinations of Palestinian leaders, from Rome to Paris, Beirut to Athens, and Gaza to Tunis. Israel has rarely claimed responsibility for the killings – though it usually also does not deny its role. And analysts are convinced that these assassinations bear Israel’s stamp, stretching over more than half a century.

After October 7, Israeli officials said publicly that senior Hamas leaders were on its kill list. In recordings made public on December 4, 2023, the head of Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency, Ronen Bar, said the country would kill Hamas leaders “in every location, in Gaza, in the West Bank, in Lebanon, in Turkey, in Qatar, everyone”.

Ismail Haniyeh | July 2024, Tehran, Iran

Hamas political boss Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran, Iran in the early hours of Wednesday, after the building where he was staying was struck in an attack that the Palestinian group blamed on Israel.

The group said that Haniyeh was killed “in a Zionist airstrike” on his residence in Tehran after he participated in the inauguration of Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian. His death came a day after Israel targeted Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut.

Saleh al-Arouri | January 2024, Beirut, Lebanon

Al-Arouri, 57, was the deputy chief of Hamas’s political bureau and one of the founders of the group’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades. He was assassinated in a drone strike in a suburb of Beirut.

He had been living in exile in Lebanon after spending 15 years in an Israeli jail. Before the war began on October 7, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had threatened to kill him.

Israel did not take responsibility for his death. However, Danny Danon, a former Israeli envoy to the United Nations, hailed the attack and congratulated the Israeli army, Shin Bet and Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, for killing al-Arouri.

Mahmoud al-Mabhouh | January 2010, Dubai, UAE

Al-Mabhouh was a military commander in the Qassam Brigades, responsible for logistics and weapons procurement.

He founded Unit 101, which was dedicated to abducting Israeli fighters. Al-Mabhouh was assassinated in the five-star Al Bustan Rotana Hotel in Dubai, the attack widely believed to have been carried out by the Mossad. According to police, al-Mabhouh was drugged, electrocuted and then suffocated with a pillow.

Mahmoud al-Majzoub | May 2006, Sidon, Lebanon

Al-Majzoub was a senior leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group (PIJ) and a close ally of the Lebanese group Hezbollah.

He was assassinated in the Lebanese city of Sidon when a car bomb attached to the door of his car door exploded when he opened it.

Adnan al-Ghul | October 2004, Gaza City, Gaza Strip

Al-Ghul was a high-ranking member of the Qassam Brigades, known as “the Father of the Qassam” for his work in building Hamas’s extensive rocket delivery system.

Identified by the Israeli military as a top bomb maker, he was assassinated in a targeted killing, an Israeli Air Force AH-64 helicopter firing missiles at his car in Gaza.

Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi | April 2004, Gaza City, Gaza Strip

Al-Rantisi was one of the seven co-founders of the Hamas movement, including Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, in the early days of the first Intifada.

He had been named as the new leader of Hamas after the killing of Yassin in March 2004.

He was killed by an Israeli helicopter missile strike in Gaza City, less than a month after Yassin’s assassination. The Israel Air Force had fired Hellfire missiles from an AH-64 Apache helicopter at his car.

Sheikh Ahmed Yassin | March 2004, Gaza City, Gaza Strip

Sheikh Yassin was considered the spiritual leader of Hamas. Yassin, a quadriplegic who was nearly blind, had been reliant on a wheelchair due to a sporting accident when he was 16.

He was killed in an Israeli helicopter missile strike as he was being wheeled out of morning prayers outside a Gaza City mosque.

Israeli security sources said at the time that then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had personally ordered and monitored the helicopter attack against the paralysed cleric.

Salah Shehadeh | July 2002, Gaza City, Gaza Strip

Shehadeh was among the founders of Hamas’s Qassam Brigades and spent a decade in Israeli jails.

He was killed after the Israeli Air Force bombed his house in Gaza City.

In a statement, the Israeli military confirmed that Shehadeh was the target of the attack, saying that he was behind “hundreds of terror attacks in the last two years against Israeli soldiers and civilians”.

Yahya Ayyash | January 1996, Beit Lahiya, Gaza Strip

Ayyash, nicknamed “the Engineer”, was known for his work as a bomb maker and commander of the West Bank battalion of the Qassam Brigades.

He was regarded as responsible for introducing suicide bombings as a strategy against Israel.

Ayyash was assassinated in Gaza’s Beit Lahiya by Shin Bet operatives who placed an explosive device in his phone, detonating it remotely after he received a call from his father.

Imad Akel | November 1993, Shujayea, Gaza Strip

Akel was a commander of the Qassam Brigades, where he served as a mentor to the current commander Mohammed Deif.

He was nicknamed “the Ghost” owing to his use of disguises to launch ambushes on Israeli forces.

In November 1993, Akel had been hiding at his home in Shujayea, which was under siege at the time. After several hours, he tried to escape and was shot by Israeli special forces.

Abu Jihad | April 1988, Tunis, Tunisia

Khalil al-Wazir, known as Abu Jihad, was a key figure in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) – he had helped found Fatah in the late 1950s. For years, he was the effective deputy to PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat.

He was shot dead by Israeli agents in an audacious commando raid in 1988.