By Hugh Fitzgerald | August 11, 2024
Undeterred by the threats coming from Hezbollah and the Iranians, that they intend to exact a terrible revenge on Israel for the killings of Hezbollah’s second-in-command, Fuad Shukr, in Beirut, and of Hamas’ political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, at a guesthouse in Tehran, Israel is continuing its campaign to kill Hamas leaders – cutting off the head(s) of the snake — and the IDF has just demonstrated, yet again, its remarkable ability to locate and take out key terrorists even as far away as the French Riviera, northern Lebanon, eastern Syria, Yemen, Iran, and Dubai. How they manage to identity so precisely in what room their targets will be sleeping, or being driven on what road in what car, only the Mossad knows.
It must surely be unnerving to Hamas to have the IDF managing to pick off these leaders one by one. The latest victim taken out by the IDF was Samer Mahmoud al-Haj, a senior commander in Hamas, who also served as a Hamas recruiter in the Palestinian camp of Ain al-Hilweh in Lebanon. It is no secret that the IDF has killed more than 16,000 Hamas combatants in Gaza, and the terror group is determined to refill its depleted ranks, which made Al-Haj’s job at Ain al-Hilweh camp, recruiting and training new combatants, so important. How many Hamas members will now volunteer to replace Al-Haj, knowing what they do about Israel’s ability to keep striking at the head of the snake? Not all Palestinians are eager to become “martyrs.” Not all of them “love death,” as they like to say, comparing themselves favorably to non-Muslims “who love life.” A great many Palestinians love life just as much as non-Muslims do, and won’t be volunteering to replace Al-Haj anytime soon. Yahya Sinwar is doing everything he can to stay alive; so is that braggart warrior Hassan Nasrallah, who to avoid an Israeli bomb moves to a different house every day.
More on the latest Israeli airstrike inside Lebanon, that killed Samer Mahmud al-Haj can be found here: “Israeli strike kills senior Hamas commander Samer Mahmoud al-Haj in south Lebanon,” Jerusalem Post, August 9, 2024:
An Israeli airstrike on a car deep inside Lebanon killed a senior Hamas commander on Friday [August 9] evening, the IDF, Hamas, and security sources reported.
The strike, on the southern edges of the Lebanese port city of Sidon, some 60 kilometers (nearly 40 miles) from the frontier, killed Samer Mahmoud al-Haj, a Hamas security official who works in the nearby refugee camp for Palestinians, Ain al-Hilweh. His bodyguard was critically wounded, the three sources said.
Al-Haj was responsible for directing attacks against Israel, the IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) reported in a joint statement. He was also reportedly the commander of Hamas forces in Ain al-Hilweh and was responsible for recruiting and training more terrorists there….
Israel has clearly shown that it has no intention of letting up its campaign of targeted assassinations of leaders of Palestinian terror groups (Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Palestinian Islamic Jihad) and of Hezbollah. And it has been able to assassinate its enemies — whether it be Hamas’ political head, Ismail Haniyeh, or five Iranian nuclear scientists, taken out one by one, in the middle of Tehran traffic, a thousand miles away from Israel.
Every successful assassination makes recruitment of replacements that much harder. Who now will willingly replace Samir al-Haj? Who wants to step into the shoes of Fuad Shukr? Whoever they may be, Israel has made clear that as soon as they assume their new posts, they will be dead men walking.
The Jewish state does not make idle threats. Unlike the leaders of Iran and Hezbollah, who huff and puff but keep putting off any “massive retaliation” against Israel, the Israelis say little as they eliminate their latest targets. Here is a very short list of just a few of those whom Mossad agents, and IDF soldiers, have assassinated: Zuheir Mohsen, head of the As Saiqa faction of the PLO, who was killed with a bullet to the back of the head while he was walking in Nice. Three PLO leaders were killed in their beds during a night raid into Beirut-in 1973: Muhammad Nasser al-Najjar, Kamal Atwan, and Kamal Nasser. The eight Black September members who murdered eleven Israeli athletes and coaches at the 1972 Munich Olympics were all hunted down by Mossad and killed, save for Abu Daoud, the only one to die a natural death. More than a dozen Mossad agents managed to enter, and exit, Dubai successfully on English, Irish and Australian passports, in order to kill Mahmoud al-Mohbouh, a senior Hamas agent in charge of arranging for Iranian weapons to be delivered to Hamas in Gaza. He was smothered in his hotel bed in the afternoon; his death was not discovered until the next morning. By that time, all of the Mossad agents had flown out of the country. Five Iranian nuclear scientists were killed; some were stopped in the middle of Tehran traffic. They included the scientific head of the country’s nuclear project, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. Saleh Al-Arouri, the deputy leader of Hamas, was killed in Beirut in January 2024. Mohammed Deif, the Hamas military chief, was killed in July 2024. Fuad Shukr, the second-in-command of Hezbollah and its military commander, was killed in Beirut in August 2024. Ismail Haniyeh, leader of Hamas’ political wing, was blown up at a guest house in Tehran. And the latest, Samir Mahmoud al-Haj, was a recruiter for Hamas at the Ain al-Hilweh camp in Lebanon. These are only some of those most responsible for murdering Israelis whom the Jewish state’s Mossad, in some cases with the assistance of the IDF, have dispatched most efficiently, from Nice to Beirut to Tehran. There are many more such acts of Israeli derring-do to come.
Iran’s braggart warriors may threaten, but they still hold back from attacking Israel directly. They are quite sensibly afraid of what may come from those diabolically clever Jews.
Very good news Israel!!