Israel/Assassination

Israeli targeted killings are assassinations labeled illegal by most of the rest of the world. While, by the year 2012, the term "targeted killing" has come to mean drone attacks, many Palestinians have in the past been killed by gunfire, booby-traps, poisons or other means.

This article is intended to be read in conjunction with Wikipedia articles Israeli targeted killings, Assassination, Criticism of the Israeli government, and Targeted killing which are full of detail that has been selected and edited so as to give a distorted impression. Wikipedia is full of lists, including those of assassination victims (eg Russian journalists), but it is strangely devoid of them for this topic.

Assassination as policy

Israel (and pre-Israel Zionists) have openly used assassination, killing 100s of their opponents, British, Palestinian, European and some Jews since 1924.

The policy took on a new lease of life in 2000. In June 2002, Professor Steven R David of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies said (to a meeting in Maryland):

Israel has openly pursued a policy of targeted killing since the inception of the second intifada in September 2000. The Israelis have identified, located and then killed alleged Palestinian terrorists with helicopter gunships, fighter aircraft, tanks, car bombs, booby traps and bullets. Dozens of Palestinians have been killed ... I argue that the policy of targeted killing is in Israel's interests and, subject to certain guidelines, should be retained. I argue this despite my conclusion that targeted killing has not appreciably diminished the costs of terrorist attacks and may have even increased them. Targeted killing is effective, however, in providing retribution and revenge for a population under siege and may, over the long term, help create conditions for a more secure Israel ... No other Israeli policy, including incursions into Palestinian territory, arrests of militants, the erection of a wall, or forced transfer of Palestinians from the territories to neighboring Arab countries enjoys the support received by targeted killing".

Perhaps the best known campaign was the one in Europe subsequent to the 1972 Munich massacre of Israeli athletes at the Olympic games. Unfazed by the notorious Lillehammer affair of 1973, the policy continued until at least 1988, killing at least 25 Palestinians, only some of whom may have been involved in any terrorism. The Wikipedia article on "Operation Wrath of God" is a gloating memorial to the size of this campaign.

The policy of killing political opponents is older than Israel, starting with the 1924 killing of a Jewish spokesman for the Orthodox Jews of Palestine who wished to be independent of the Zionists. The Wikipedia article calls him a Dutch Jewish literary writer and journalist, assassinated by Haganah for his anti-Zionist political activities and contacts with Arab leaders.

Chaim Arlosoroff, Political Secretary of the Jewish Agency (the World Zionist Organization's "Palestine centre") was shot dead on a Tel-Aviv beach in front of his wife on 16th Jun 1933. It is most likely that the assassins were Revisionist Zionists upset that the World Zionist Organisation proposed (and the Jewish Agency subsequently implemented, under Moshe Shertok) a joint project with Hitler to evacuate wealthier Jews from Germany to Palestine with at least some of their assets. According to Lenni Brenner, without this deal, the Zionist project was in trouble. However, according to the Wikipedia, the murder of Arlosoroff has never been solved.

Support for assassination

A poll published by Ma'ariv in July 2001 (before there were large scale suicide bombing against Israel) found that 90 percent of the Israeli public supported the policy. (Surveys of this kind normally exclude the views of citizens of Palestinian origin, around 20% of the population of Israel).

Many American policy makers and academics also support assassinations and did so even before drone attacks became technically practical in the mid-2000s, eg Israeli Professor David (see above):

... Targeted killing has also proven effective in the battle for public relations throughout the world. Although Israel has been criticized in the media for slaying Palestinian militants, the criticism has been far less than afforded other policies. When, for example, Israel attacks Palestinian cities, there is no lack of coverage of the innocent deaths that result or the widespread suffering imposed on a mostly non-combatant society. Targeted killings, at least, focus on specific adversaries who mean Israel harm. That there is rarely television coverage of the actual operation is another benefit."

However, it should be noted that Professor David (much quoted below), while saying that the policy of targeted killing is in Israel's interest, also said that Israel "must refrain from killing political leaders". The killing of Palestinian leaders such as Abu Jihad and Abu Ali Mustafa was a mistake, even though they were linked to terrorism. If Israel kills everyone who has been involved in terrorism there will be no one left with any standing among the Palestinians with whom to negotiate. When targeted killing eliminates those who can potentially arrange a settlement, Israeli interests are severely damaged.

Opposition to assassinations

Similarly, there is a wide range of opposition to this policy "prompting international condemnation, domestic soul searching and bloody retaliation".

A selection of opposition view-points:

• UN - Secretary-General Kofi Annan repeatedly urged Israel to end targeted killings, saying it violates international law and undermines efforts at achieving a Middle East peace.

• American - Secretary of State Colin Powell condemned the policy in 2001, declaring at one point, "We continue to express our distress and opposition to these kinds of targeted killings and we will continue to do so."

• American - US Ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk "The United States government is very clearly on the record as against targeted assassinations." They are extrajudicial killings, and we do not support that."

• American - The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) stated "A program of targeted killing far from any battlefield, without charge or trial, violates the constitutional guarantee of due process. It also violates international law, under which lethal force may be used outside armed conflict zones only as a last resort to prevent imminent threats, when non-lethal means are not available. Targeting people who are suspected of terrorism for execution, far from any war zone, turns the whole world into a battlefield."

• Israeli - Research director of B’Tselem, "The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories", Yael Stein, stated in an article "By Any Name Illegal and Immoral: Response to 'Israel's Policy of Targeted Killing'": The argument that this policy affords the public a sense of revenge and retribution could serve to justify acts both illegal and immoral. Clearly, lawbreakers ought to be punished. Yet, no matter how horrific their deeds, as the targeting of Israeli civilians indeed is, they should be punished according to the law. David’s arguments could, in principle, justify the abolition of formal legal systems altogether.

• Egypt - Ibrahim Nafie, writing in Egypt's Al-Ahram Weekly in 2001, criticized the U.S. for agreeing with "the Israeli spin that calls ... its official policy of assassinating Palestinian leaders 'targeted killing.'"

Organization of assassination teams

The most ambitious assassinations, those in Europe from 1972 to 1988, were carried out by a unit under Mossad agent Michael Harari. UK author Simon Reeve details the arrangement of the squad:

...fifteen people divided into five squads: "Aleph", two trained killers; "Bet", two guards who would shadow the Alephs; "Het", two agents who would establish cover for the rest of the team by renting hotel rooms, apartments, cars, and so on; "Ayin", comprising between six and eight agents who formed the backbone of the operation, shadowing targets and establishing an escape route for the Aleph and Bet squads; and "Qoph", two agents specializing in communications.

Victor Ostrovsky describes similar teams but calls them Kidon. Author Gordon Thomas was given access to reports of eight Kidon and 80 backup members. Ostrovsky p.179 thinks there were 35 names on the original list of those to be killed, while Reeve p.162 gives the number as 20.

Author Aaron Klein says Kidon was a development of a unit called Caesarea. Harari eventually commanded three Caesarea teams of around 12 members each, sub-divided into logistics, surveillance, and assassination squads.

An article in Time magazine put the number of personnel in the Lillehammer affair at 15.

Alexander B. Calahan, in his thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Marine Corps Command and Staff College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Military Studies, April 1995, has related details concerning the book Vengeance by George Jonas in 1984. The book says that each assassination unit consisted of five members and they were outside any direct Israeli control. Their only contact was Harari

George Jonas was a producer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Toronto and was in approximately six months of discussions with "Avner", after which he concluded that the events described to him were true. "Avner"'s recall of small details was "excellent" and in combination with Jonas' personal research convinced him that Avner's account was authentic. Jonas related that he attempted to verify events through outside sources and establish the likelihood of those events. "Avner" never identified Mike Harari by name, this was done through later publications. Calahan contacted "Avner" who related that the Mossad recently (ie 1995) released an official statement confirming that the events published in Jonas' book, Vengeance, are, in fact, true. "Avner" assured Mr. Jonas that the personalities and specialties relating to each team member are accurate; hence, they are not composites to disguise the actual team. Calahan says that Mike Harari and the names of the officers involved in the Lillehammer incident were identified and cross referenced through more recently published material.

David B. Tinnin's book, The Hit Team, published in 1976, also provides an account of a team traveling through Europe assassinating PLO terrorists, though numerous discrepancies of tactical details of the operations exist between Tinnin's and Avner's accounts.

In 2010, the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh (see below) in his hotel room in Dubai was carried out by at least 11 people, with 15 or 16 more thought likely.[1]

Lists of assassinations

Assassinations of western figures

Stamps issued by Israel in 1982 to honour terrorists and others, including the war-time assassins of Lord Moyne, buried with full state and military honours on Mount Herzl in 1975.

• 6 November 1944 - Lord Moyne, Cairo. The Stern Gang had been targeting the British in Palestine since 1940, making several attempts on the life of the British High Commissioner, Sir Harold MacMichael. Instead of which, Moyne (Irish and one of the few in the British government to support partition) became their first victim. Churchill had sent his good friend to Cairo, and he told the House of Commons: If our dreams for Zionism are to end in the smoke of an assassin's pistol, and the labours for its future produce a new set of gangsters worthy of Nazi Germany, then many like myself will have to reconsider the position we have maintained so consistently and so long in the past. In 1975, the bodies of the two executed assassins were returned to Israel, were honoured in the Jerusalem Hall of Heroism and buried in the military section of Mount Herzl in a state funeral with full military honors. Britain lodged a formal protest, but Israel rejected the criticism, referring to Ben Zuri and Hakim as "heroic freedom fighters". In 1982, postage stamps were issued in their honour.

• 17th Sept 1948 - Count Folke Bernadotte was a member of the Swedish royal family, cousin to the King. He was second only to Wallenburg for rescuing Jews in the last months of WWII. On 14 May 1948, the day before the British Mandate expired, the UN appointed him as "Mediator" to watch over Israel's birth, 'to use his good offices with the local community and authorities in Palestine ... to promote a peaceful adjustment of the future situation in Palestine'. Two months after his killing, and as a result of great international pressure, Israel arrested Nathan Yellin-Mor, the head of the Stern Gang, and Matitiahu Schmulevitz who were convicted and presently released. Yitzhak Shamir, the organization's operational commander and future Prime Minister of Israel, went into hiding.

• 27 March 1952 - a package addressed to Chancellor Adenauer killed a German police officer and injured two others. Investigations led to people closely related to the Herut Party of Israel and former terrorists. Five Israeli suspects (former members of Irgun) were identified in Paris but allowed to return to Israel. Eliezer Sudit later revealed that the mastermind behind the assassination attempt was Menachem Begin, later to become Prime Minister of Israel. Begin aimed to prevent the signing of agreements which paid German reparations to the state of Israel rather than the Holocaust survivors themselves. In June 2006 the link to Menachem Begin was confirmed in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, quoted by the Guardian. Begin had offered to sell his gold watch as the conspirators ran out of money. The bomb was hidden in an encyclopedia and it killed a bomb-disposal expert, injuring two others. Adenauer (an impeccably anti-Nazi German) was targeted in order "to rouse the international media. It was clear to all of us there was no chance the package would reach Adenauer".

Assassinations of Palestinians in Europe

On July 21 1973, a team of Israeli hitmen shot dead a Moroccan waiter, Ahmed Bouchikhi, as he walked home from the cinema with his pregnant wife in the resort, 110 miles north of Oslo. He had been mistaken for Hassan Salameh, a PLO intelligence chief suspected of masterminding the Olympic killings. This was the Lillehammer affair

Two members of the terrorist cell were seized the next day as they re-used a getaway car to go to the airport and they betrayed the rest of the cell. Incriminating documents and the keys to a network of safe houses were discovered. However, the cell leader, Harari, escaped and Israel refused to extradite him.

Five agents - Marianne Gladinkoff, who was born in Sweden; Sylvia Rafael, of South Africa; Israeli Abraham Gehmer; Dan Aerbel, who was born in Denmark; and Brazilian-born Zvi Steinberg - were convicted, jailed and pardoned (1975) in Norway. About nine others are thought to have escaped from Norway, including the suspected leader, Michael Harari, a senior Mossad agent who has now retired. Norway reopened the case in 1990 and issued a global warrant for Mr Harari in 1997 but closed the case the next year.

In 1996, Israel paid US$283,000 compensation to the victim's wife and daughter, and a separate settlement of US$118,000 to a son from a previous marriage, but without taking responsibility for the killing.

Some of the following were terrorists while others were almost certainly innocents, targeted solely for being representatives of the Palestinians.

• 14th Feb 1988 - Abu Al Hassan Qasim and Hamdi Adwan (also wounding Marwan Kanafami) car bomb in Cyprus.

• 21st Oct 21 1986 - Munzer Abu Ghazala, a senior PLO official and member of the Palestinian National Council, was killed by a bomb in Athens.

• 10th Jun 1986, Khaled Ahmed Nazal, Secretary-General of the PLO's "Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine" faction gunned down in Athens.

• 21st Aug 21 1983 - Mamoun Meraish, PLO official, shot dead in his car in Athens by two Mossad operatives on a motorcycle. (No reference at Wikipedia).

• 17th Jun 1982 - Nazeyh Mayer, a leading figure in the PLO's Rome office shot dead.

• 17th Jun 1982 - Kamal Husain, deputy director of the PLO office in Rome, killed by a shrapnel bomb in his car as he drove home, seven hours after helping the police with their investigation.

• 1982 - Yasser Arafat was repeatedly targeted in Beirut by booby-trapped cars and air attacks. A sniper reportedly had him in his sights during the PLO's farewell ceremony from Beirut but he was saved by the presence of American and other diplomats.

In February 2002, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon lamented that Israel had not killed Arafat in Lebanon when it had the chance to do so.

• 23rd Jul 1982 - Fadl Dani, deputy director of the PLO office in Paris, killed by a bomb in his car. (No reference at Wikipedia).

• 15th Dec 1979 - Ali Salem Ahmed and Ibrahim Abdul Aziz shot dead with silenced weapons at point-blank range in Cyprus.

• 22nd Jan 1979 - Ali Hassan Salameh and four bodyguards, along with 4 innocent bystanders (one British, one German) were killed by a remote controlled car-bomb in a fashionable part of Beirut. This was the 6th attempt on him, the first having been the killing in Lillehammer. 17 agents are said to have fled the country.

Golda Meir ordered the suspension of assassinations in Europe in the aftermath of the Lillehammer affair. Revelations by captured agents compromised Mossad assets across Europe, including safe houses, agents, and operational methods. New Prime Minister Menachem Begin, who had once called himself "The Father of Terrorism" re-started the operation five years later

• 21st Aug 1974 - a woman was killed in Amsterdam. She had supposedly seduced and shot dead a Mossad agent in London 3 months earlier. The agent, with two others, is thought to have been lured to London on behalf of Ali Hassan Salameh. This killing (and perhaps the one below, in Spain) earned a reprimand for the Kidon team leader.

• mid-1974 - a security guard at a villa in Spain shot dead as Kidon team assassins approached looking for Ali Hassan Salameh.

• 12th Jan 1974 - seeking Ali Hassan Salameh, 3 men who appeared to be Arab were shot dead in a church in Switzerland.

• 28th Jun 1973 - Mohammad Boudia, Algerian-born, allegedly director of operations for Black September in France killed by bomb in his car in Paris.

• 16th Apr 1973 - Dr. Basil al-Kubaissi, a law professor at the American University of Beirut suspected by Israel of providing arms logistics for Black September as well as being involved in other Palestinian plots, was shot dead in Paris by two agents.

• 9th Apr 1973 - Muhammad Youssef al-Najjar (Operations leader in Black September), Kamal Adwan (Chief of Operations in the PLO) and Kamal Nasser (PLO Executive Committee member and spokesman), each in different apartments, were killed by special forces landed in small boats from Israeli ships. Two Lebanese police officers, an Italian citizen, and Najjar's wife were also killed. Paratroopers led by Ehud Barak, the future prime minister, attacked the headquarters of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, losing two dead but destroying the 6-story building and killing up to 100 PLO and PFLP suspects.

• 24th Jan 1973 - Hussein Al Bashir, the Jordanian Fatah representative in Cyprus bombed in his hotel room. Israel believed him to be the head of Black September in Cyprus, though another reason for his assassination may have been for his close ties with the KGB.

• 11th Apr 1973 - Zaiad Muchasi, replacement for Hussein Al Bashir in Cyprus, was killed by a bomb in his Athens hotel room on April 11.

• c. Apr 1973 - Abdel Hamid Shibi and Abdel Hadi Nakaa, two minor Black September members were injured by a bombing in their car in Rome.

• It is alleged that a killing took place in London, a Palestinian activist being pushed under a bus.

• 8th Dec 1972 - Dr. Mahmoud Hamshari, PLO representative in France, killed by a bomb planted in his office, activated along the telephone line. He was able to tell Parisian detectives how his office had been accessed but died several weeks later.

• 16th Oct 1972 - Wael Zwaiter, the PLO representative for Italy was killed, the first victim of the new campaign. Claims that he was a member of Black September and involved in a failed plot against an El Al airliner were denied. Salah Khalaf, deputy-chief of the PLO, stated that Zwaiter was "energetically" against terrorism. There were thirteen deaths in the following 12 months.

Assassinations of Palestinians elsewhere

• 19th Jan 2010 - Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, senior Hamas commander and one of the founders of the al-Qassam Brigades, died in January 2010 by electrocution and/or the drug succinylcholine and/or by suffocation in his room in a five-star Dubai hotel. Dubai police said that Mossad was behind the killing.

• 25th Sept 1997 - Khaled Mashal is a leader of Hamas who was the target of an assassination attempt in Jordan in 1997. Two Mossad agents carrying Canadian passports entered Jordan and injected Mashal with an unknown nerve toxin. They were captured and a few days later, Netanyahu surrendered to international pressure and provided the antidote. The paraplegic Sheik Ahmed Yassin, who had founded Hamas on Israel's behalf, was also released from an Israeli prison, only to be killed in Gaza later.

• Jan 1996 - Yahya Ayyash, known to Israel as "the engineer", a skilled and prolific bomb maker, blown up by a booby-trapped mobile phone in Gaza. Ayyash's death unleashed four suicide bus bombings in the next two months, killing more than fifty Israelis.

• Oct 1995 - Fathi Shikaki, Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader in Malta.

• Spring 1988 - Khalil al-Wazir, said to have been one of the founders and the Military Head of Fatah was killed in Tunis in 1988. Israel linked him to the hijacking of an Israeli bus in March 1988. Ehud Barak reportedly planned the joint Army/Mossad raid.

• 1973 - Muhammad Najar, Kammal Adwan, and Kammal Nasser killed in Beirut, claimed to be top PLO leaders.

• 1960s - mail bombs were sent to German scientists and their families working in Egypt. A missile program was abandoned as a result.

• 1950s - two senior Egyptian military intelligence officials linked to fedayeen operations were killed by mail bombs sent by Israeli intelligence. Israeli mines and other measures resulted in the death of between 2,700 and 5,000 infiltrators, mostly unarmed, before the attack on Suez and Gaza in 1956. Israelis are divided on the actual number of deaths caused by the "fedayeen", Martin Gilbert claiming that 967 Israelis between 1951 and 1955. Benny Morris says that this number is "3-5 times higher than the figures given in contemporary Israeli reports".Dozens of these attacks are claimed by the Israeli government. Israel was condemned by the UNSC for 17 raids into and 31 attacks on Arab towns.United Nations reports indicate that Israel launched more than 17 raids on Egyptian territory and 31 attacks on Arab towns or military forces before 1956. Another Israeli historian, Avi Shlaim claims that all Arab governments attempted to curb infiltration until 1954, when Egypt broke ranks. Israeli sources cite the attacks as the reason for the 1956 attack on Suez, they certainly rose considerably in 1955, 260 killed or wounded according to the ADL. Chomsky says there were no Israeli casualties when Israeli entered Khan Yunis killing 275 Palestinians, and a further 111 in the Rafah refugee camp. General Mustafa Hafez of Egypt is said to have founded Palestinian fedayeen units "to launch terrorist raids across Israel's southern border." Ian Lustick writes that among the "engineered eve-of-war lies and deceptions [...] designed to give Israel the excuse needed to launch its strike [on Egypt]" was the presentation to journalists of a group of captured fedayeen, who were in fact Israeli soldiers.

• 1940s - pre-Israel, letter-bombs in London, suit-case bomb in Rome. Many of the people involved in such attacks had careers in Israeli politics, two of them reaching the position of Israeli Prime Minister.

Assassinations of Palestinians in Gaza

• 1st Jun 2012 - Zuhair al-Qaisi, head of the Popular Resistance Committees. A further 23 Palestinians were killed in the next 4 days and 200 rockets were fired at southern Israel, confining a million people to bomb shelters.

• 10th March 2012 - Mahdi Ahmad Mahmoud Abu Shawish. 25 year-old resident of Rafah, killed in Rafah district, by a missile fired from an aircraft.

• 9th March 2012 - Zuheir Musa Ahmad al-Qaysi, 49 year-old resident of a-Shaburah (R.C), Rafah district, killed in Gaza city, by a missile fired from an aircraft. Killed while riding in a vehicle with another armed man, Mahmoud Ahmad Hanani, 44 year-old resident of Gaza city.

• 8th Dec 2011 - Issam Subhi Isma'il al-Batsh, 43 year-old resident of Gaza city, killed in Gaza city, by a missile fired from an aircraft. Senior official in al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, killed in a car with his nephew, active in the military wing of Hamas.

• 29th Oct 2011 - Abd al-Karim Musa 'Odeh Shatat, 24 year-old from Khan Yunis, Bassem Muhammad Salman Abu al-'Ata, 33 year-old from Gaza city, Muhammad Khamis Mar'i 'Ashur 23 year-old from Khan Yunis, Ahmad Khalil 'Abd a-Latif a-Sheikh Khalil 36 year-old senior official in the military wing of Islamic Jihad, Ahmad Khalil 'Abd a-Latif a-Sheikh Khalil 36 year-old, Hassan Muhammad Hassan al-Khadari 26 year-old from Gaza city, all killed at an Islamic Jihad training camp.

• 24th Aug 2011 - Isma'il Zuhdi Isma'il al-Asmar, 36 year-old resident of Tall a-Sultan Camp, Rafah district, killed in Rafah district, by a missile fired from an aircraft. Activist in the military wing of Islamic Jihad.

• 19th Aug 2011 - Mu'ataz Bassem Hamdan Kreqa' 28 year-old resident of Gaza city, killed on 19.08.2011 in Gaza city, by a missile fired from an aircraft. Active in the military wing of Islamic Jihad, he was killed while riding on a motorcycle with his brother and his toddler son.

• 18th Aug 2011 - Kamal 'Awad Muhammad a-Nayrab, 43 year-old resident of a-Shaburah (R.C), Rafah district, killed in Rafah, by a missile fired from an aircraft. Senior member of the Popular Resistance Committees, killed while at a meeting with other activists of the organization at the house of one of them. Also killed were Khaled Hamad Sha'th Sha'th, 32 year-old resident of Rafah, activist in the Popular Resistance Committees, along with his infant son, 'Imad 'Abd al-Karim 'Abd al-Khaleq Hammad 40 year-old resident of a-Shaburah (R.C), Rafah district, senior member of the Popular Resistance Committees, Khaled Ibrahim Salman al-Masri, 26 year-old resident of Rafah, activist in the Popular Resistance Committees and Imad a-Ddin Na'im Sayed Naser, 46 year-old resident of Rafah, activist in the Popular Resistance Committees.

• 2nd Feb 2011 - at least one Palestinian killed and three wounded in airstrike in Rafah. Israeli military said the vehicle targeted was carrying "terrorists". Palestinian sources confirmed that four missiles were fired at "a government car".

• 11th Jan 2011 - Muhammad Jamil Musa a-Najar, 23 year-old resident of Khan Yunis, killed next to Khan Yunis, by a missile fired from an aircraft while riding on a motorcycle on the Khan Yunis-Rafah road.

• 17th Nov 2010 - Islam Saleh 'Abd al-Hamid Yasin, 34 year-old resident of Jabalya, North Gaza district, killed on 17.11.2010 in Gaza city, by a missile. Killed with his brother by missile fire while they were riding in a car.

• 3rd Nov 2010 Muhammad Jamal Fares a-Namnam, 25 year-old resident of a-Shati' Camp, Gaza district, killed in Gaza city by a missile. Wanted by Israel, killed while driving in Gaza City.

• 4th Mar 2009, Khaled Harb Khaled Sh'alan, 23 year-old resident of Gaza city, killed on 04.03.2009 in Gaza city, by a missile fired from a helicopter. He was the object of a targeted killing. Additional information: Killed while riding in his car.

• 27th Jan 2009, Hussein Faiz Hussein Shameyah, 25 year-old resident of Khan Yunis, injured on 27.01.2009 in Khan Yunis, and died on 08.02.2009. Attacked while riding a scooter in al-'Aqad area.

• 15th Jan 2009, Sa'id Muhammad Sha'ban Siyam, 48 year-old minister in the Hamas government and resident of Gaza city, killed in Gaza city by a missile. IDF bombed his house. B'Tselem does not have sufficient information to determine which function he carried out in hostilities against Israel. Muhammad Isma'il Mahmoud Siyam, 27 year-old resident of Gaza city, bodyguard of Sa'id Siyam, killed in the bombing of Siyam's house.

• 1st May 2008, Nafez Kamel Muhammad Mansur, 42 year-old resident of Rafah, killed in Rafah by a missile fired from a helicopter. Died walking the street in a-Shvura refugee camp.

And so on - the B'tselem reference lists 8 such "targeted" killings in 2008 and 14 in 2007.

• Yahya Abdel-Tif Ayyash, an alleged Hamas bombmaker, "the Engineer" was killed by a cell phone allegedly containing "50 grams of high-grade explosives." in Beit Lahya, Gaza, 1996.

There were 22 such assassinations in 2006 and 22 in 2005.

• 22nd Mar 2004, paraplegic Sheik Ahmed Ismail Yassin was rocketed to death in his wheel-chair along with 7 others, including bystanders, as he exited a mosque in al-Sabra, Gaza. Sheikh Yassin had been jailed and released by Israel.

• 17th Apr 2004 - Dr. Abdel Aziz Ali Abdulmajid al-Rantissi was the co-founder of Hamas with Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, and was the Hamas's political leader and spokesman in the Gaza Strip. Rantissi opposed any compromise with Israel and called for the creation of a state of Palestine (including the whole of the State of Israel). Rantissi claimed that the Holocaust did not occur as described by Western historians and that Zionists at one time supported and funded Nazi activities.

• Oct 2004 - Adnan al-Ghoul

There were a total of 38 assassinations in 2004 and 44 in 2003.

• 22nd Jul 2002 - Sheik Salah Mustafa Muhammad Shehade and his wife, his three sons, four other children and others were killed by a one-ton bomb in Gaza. making 36 in 2002, 37 in 2001 and 9 in 2000 for a total of 255 Palestinians the object of a targeted killing in the Occupied Territories

• 2002 - Mustafa Zibri, Secretary-General of the PFLP.

• 2002 - Raed al-Karmi, one of the leaders of the Tanzim movement.

• 2001/2 - many "mid-level fighters", being militants named by Palestinian collaborators. Until the spring of 2002, Israel would hand a list of wanted terrorists to the Palestinian Authority (PA) and, if the PA did not arrest the individuals, Israel killed them.

• Nov 2001 - Jamil Jadallah

• 27th Aug 2001, Abu Ali Mustafa, leader of the PFLP was killed by two rockets as he sat at his desk in his office in Ramallah. Over 50,000 mourners attended his funeral.

• Feb 2001 - Mahmoud Adani

• 1971 - 104 Palestinians were killed and 742 arrested by Ariel Sharon's unit, often posing as Arab civilians, in Gaza.

Assassinations of Palestinians in West Bank

There is a long history of these assassinations.

Breaking the Silence, an Israeli organization of ex-soldiers, reports that, after after six Israeli soldiers were killed in Ein Arik in February 2002, a revenge operation was ordered in which Palestinian police officers would be murdered. A soldier who took part in a raid which killed four or five Palestinian policemen at a checkpoint 24 hours after Ein Arik said: "It felt bad even at that time. They said Palestinian police are connected to terror and that the [killers] passed through the checkpoint. Maybe the police are connected to terror but for sure they didn't pass through all the checkpoints [attacked that day]."

One Palestinian retaliation assassination

• 17th Oct 2001 - Rehavam Ze'evi, Israeli tourist minister and strong supporter of "targeted killings" was himself assassinated by Hamdi Quran and three other members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The PFLP stated that the assassination was in retaliation for the Aug 27, 2001, killing of Abu Ali Mustafa, their Secretary General.

Books Referenced in the text above and the notes below

Klein: Striking Back: The 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and Israel's Deadly Response. Aaron J. Klein 2005.

Morris: Israel's Secret Wars: A History of Israel's Intelligence Services. Benny Morris 1991.

Morris: Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict 1881-1999. Benny Morris 1999

Ostrovsky: By Way of Deception: The making and unmaking of a Mossad Officer. Victor Ostrovsky 1990.

Raviv: Every Spy a Prince: The Complete History of Israel's Intelligence Community, Dan Raviv and Yossi Melman, 1990.

Reeve: One Day in September: The Full Story of the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and the Israeli Revenge Operation "Wrath of God". Simon Reeve. New York City: Arcade Publishing, 2006.