Israel’s covert campaign targets Hamas terrorists behind Oct 7 massacre

Israel continues to conduct an extensive campaign to locate and eliminate Palestinian terrorists involved in the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre, analysts told Fox News Digital, describing the policy as a decades-old doctrine aimed at both deterrence and retribution.

Last month, the Israel Defense Forces announced the elimination of Hasan Mahmoud Hasan Hussein, who on Oct. 7 led the brutal attack on a bomb shelter on Route 232 in Kibbutz Re’im, where 16 people were brutally murdered in the assault. Four others were taken hostage to Gaza, including Israeli American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was later killed in captivity.

The IDF also confirmed the deaths of Yousef Mahmoud Muhammad Juma’a, head of the Hamas cell that raided Kibbutz Alumim; Mahmoud Afana, who infamously boasted to his parents about murdering 10 Jews during the terror invasion; and Mohammed Hassan Mohammed Awad who held slain hostages Shiri Bibas and her two children, Kfir and Ariel and was implicated in their murders, and also the deaths of American citizens Gad Haggai and Judy Weistein.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to settle scores with Hamas, previously asserting, “We will not rest, nor will we be silent. We will pursue you, we will find you and we will settle accounts with you.”

Maj. Gen. (ret.) Amos Yadlin, former head of the IDF Military Intelligence Directorate, said this approach dates back decades.

“After the Munich Olympics massacre [of 11 Israelis] in 1972, it was decided that everybody involved in planning and executing these horrific terror attacks will be found and killed for three purposes: the first is to preempt further attacks, the second is deterrence and the third is retribution,” Yadlin told Fox News Digital.

He said that the same principles applied when the United States targeted Usama bin Laden after al Qaeda’s 9/11 attacks and, more recently, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. “None of these terrorists should die of old age,” he said.

Yadlin explained that intelligence is gathered by the Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security agency akin to the FBI; Aman, Israel’s Military Intelligence Directorate, which is the country’s largest intelligence agency; and the Mossad, when the target is located abroad. Strikes are typically carried out by the air force, which he said is highly precise in targeting threats.

On July 31, 2024, Israel assassinated Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in Iran during his visit for the inauguration of President Masoud Pezeshkian, using an explosive device covertly planted in the Tehran guesthouse where he was staying.

The IDF also killed former Hamas terror chief in Gaza Yahya Sinwar; the head of Hamas’s armed wing, Mohammed Deif, and more recently, Sinwar’s brother, Mohammed, who had succeeded him. 

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The Shin Bet has established a special center devoted exclusively to locating Hamas terrorists who participated in the Oct. 7 massacre, according to Brig. Gen. (ret.) Lior Akerman, a senior researcher at the Institute for Policy and Strategy at Reichman University.

“They were identified based on intelligence, photographs, testimonies, investigations and more. And from that moment, the hunt begins until they are arrested or eliminated,” Akerman, a former Shin Bet agent, told Fox News Digital.

Akerman said the Shin Bet followed the same approach during the Second Intifada, the Palestinian terror war in the early 2000s. He noted that Aziz Salha — who gained global notoriety from a video showing him lynching two Israeli soldiers in Ramallah’s twin city of el-Bireh on Oct. 12, 2000 — was killed in October 2024 in an IDF strike in the Gaza Strip.

IDF Brig. Gen. (res.) Amir Avivi stressed that gathering intelligence on terrorists is a complex process that relies on multiple sources.

“The Shin Bet and army intelligence work with many different kinds of sources, some are human intelligence (HUMINT), based on informants who share information. Others cyber, digital capabilities to tap computers or phones, the use of cameras and visual intelligence (VISINT) and the ability to monitor areas with drones,” Avivi told Fox News Digital.

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“You would need two sources to verify the position of a terrorist and then also make sure that he is isolated enough so that there is no danger to civilians. Once you manage to find the best operational conditions, then you choose the method of attack,” he added.

Avivi said that gathering information on Hamas terrorists and the organization’s structure has been an ongoing effort for years, including mapping platoons, companies, and battalions, as well as identifying commanders. Prior to the Oct. 7 attacks, Israeli security forces already possessed extensive intelligence on many of the terrorists involved, including drawing on satellite images and intercepted communications.

Brig. Gen. (Res.) Nitzan Nuriel, former director of the Counter-Terrorism Bureau at the Prime Minister’s Office (2007–2012), told Fox News Digital that Israel had captured large volumes of Hamas data, including gigabytes of clips, pictures and documents, which helped analysts piece together critical intelligence.

While the Oct. 7 massacre involved far more perpetrators than typical terror attacks in Israel–with some 6,000 storming the border that day— Nuriel said the methods for tracking them remain the same; the larger scale, however, means the process will take longer.

“I believe one of the reasons Hamas will be willing to accept President Trump’s peace plan is because it allows many of them to stay out of Israel’s long-reaching arms,” he continued. “If they agree to the entire proposal, some of them will survive.”