Israel/Assassination

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Criticism of the Israeli government include actions labeled illegal by most of the rest of the world. Assassinations are a particular point of contention. While the term "targeted killing" has come to mean airborne attacks, many Palestinians were killed in the past by gunfire or other means which Israel does not officially confirm.

This article is intended to be read in conjunction with Wikipedia articles Criticism of the Israeli government, Assassination, Israeli targeted killings and Targeted killing which are full of detail that has been selected and edited so as to give a distorted impression.

Assassination as policy

"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, prompting international condemnation, domestic soul searching and bloody retaliation." said Steven R. David, Associate Dean at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland in "FATAL CHOICES: ISRAEL'S POLICY OF TARGETED KILLING"[1]

Yael Stein, the research director of B’Tselem, The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories 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.[2]

Opposition to assassinations

The American Civil Liberties Union 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."[3]

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.'"[4]

Lists of assassinations

Assassinations of western figures

Lord Moyne - 1944, Cairo.

Count Bernadotte - 1948, Jerusalem.

Assassinations of Palestinians in Europe

Subsequent to the 1972 Munich massacre of Israeli athletes at the Olympic games, Israeli agents set out to kill a range of their suspected Palestinian opponents, notably leading to the Lillehammer affair. The Mossad agents murdered Ali Hassan Salamehm, an innocent Moroccan living in Norway. 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.[5] However, the cell leader, Harari, escaped and Israel refused to extradite him to Norway.

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,[6] but without taking responsibility for the killing.[7]

Assassinations of Palestinians elsewhere

  • 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.[8][9][10][11]
  • Khaled Mashal of Hamas nearly killed in Jordan in 1997.
  • Three Palestinians killed in Beirut in 1973, Muhammad Najar, Kammal Adwan, and Kammal Nasser.
  • Khalil al-Wazir, said to have been one of the founders and the Military Head of Fatah was killed in Tunis in 1988.[12]

Assassinations of Palestinians in Gaza

  • 10th March 2012 - Mahdi Ahmad Mahmoud Abu Shawish. 25 year-old resident of Rafah, killed in Rafah district, by a missile fired from a Aircraft.[13]
  • 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 a Aircraft. Killed while riding in a vehicle with another armed man, Mahmoud Ahmad Hanani, 44 year-old resident of Gaza city.[13]
  • 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.[13]
  • 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.[13]
  • 24th August 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 a Aircraft. Activist in the military wing of Islamic Jihad.[13]
  • 19th August 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 a Aircraft. Active in the military wing of Islamic Jihad, he was killed while riding on a motorcycle with his brother and his toddler son.[13]
  • 18th August 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 a 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.[13]
  • 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 a Aircraft while riding on a motorcycle on the Khan Yunis-Rafah road.[13]
  • 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.[13]
  • 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.[13]
  • 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.[13]
  • 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.[14]

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

  • Sheik Ahmed Ismail Yassin was rocketed to death on Friday morning, March 22, 2004 killed along with 7 other bystanders as he exited a mosque in al-Sabra, Gaza.[15][16]
  • Mahmoud Adani, Hamas, February 2001, Jamil Jadallah, Hamas, November 2001, Salah Shahade, Hamas, July 2002, Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, April 2004 and Adnan al-Ghoul, October 2004.[17]

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

  • Sheik Salah Mustafa Muhammad Shehade and his wife, his three sons and four other children were killed by a one-ton bomb in July 2002 in Gaza.[18][19] 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

Notes

  1. ↑ "FATAL CHOICES: ISRAEL'S POLICY OF TARGETED KILLING" paper prepared for the BESA Center Conference on Democracy and Limited War, 4-6 June 2002. Professor Steven R. David.
  2. ↑ By Any Name Illegal and Immoral: Response to 'Israel's Policy of Targeted Killing' B'Tselem director.
  3. ↑ Frequently Asked Questions About Targeting Killing ACLU home-page. August 30, 2010.
  4. ↑ The very model of a rogue state. Al-Ahram Weekly October 31, 2001.
  5. ↑ An Eye For An Eye CBS. 2001-11-20.
  6. ↑ World News Briefs;Israelis to Compensate Family of Slain Waiter New York Times 1996-01-28.
  7. ↑ Norway solves riddle of Mossad killing The Guardian 2000-03-02.
  8. ↑ Hamas military commander 'assassinated in Dubai' BBC January 29, 2010.
  9. ↑ Hamas man 'drugged and suffocated' in Dubai BBC February 28, 2010.
  10. ↑ Dubai has proof Mossad killed Hamas man: report Al Arabiya February 20, 2010.
  11. ↑ Israel's Greatest Hits: Before Dubai, a History of Targeted Killing ABC News, February 17, 2010.
  12. ↑ Inbari, Pinchas. "Removing the Imaginary Hurdle." Al-HaMishmar. April 18, 1988. Article found in "The Murder of Abu Jihad". The Journal of Palestine Studies. Vol 17, No. 4, 1988. Page 155. According to the Wikipedia.
  13. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Palestinians who were the object of a targeted killing in the Occupied Territories, 29.9.2000 - 30.4.2012 B'tselem updated list.
  14. ↑ http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F01E4D71339F933A25752C0A960958260 Slaying Blended Technology and Guile.] New York Times. (Archives) January 10, 1996.
  15. ↑ Hamas chief killed in air strike BBC. 22 March, 2004.
  16. ↑ Benn, Aluf and Harel, Amos. "Hamas Leader Surfaced Only to Worship." Ha’Aretz Daily (Archives). March 23, 2004
  17. ↑ Questioning the Efficacy of Israeli Targeted Killings Against Hamas’ Religio-Military Command as a Counter-terrorism Tool. Wm.edu. 2006.
  18. ↑ Guardian "12 Dead in Attack on Hamas." by Goldenberg, Suzanne. July 23, 2002.
  19. ↑ Shehade was high on Israel most-wanted list CNN, July 23, 2002
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