Author Robert Inlakesh

Israel’s failed assassination strikes against the Hamas leadership, in Doha, were widely framed as “unprecedented” and “shocking”. Yet, a brief look at Israel’s history suggests the very opposite, this was simply one more country to add to a long list across at least four continents.

On September 10, one day after his failed assassination attempt against the Hamas leadership in Qatar, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, publicly threatened to launch yet another attack inside the territory of Gulf Arab State, and beyond. Despite even US President Donald Trump attempting to distance himself from the attack, that violated the sovereignty of its allied nation, the Israeli Premier showed no remorse or regret.

Netanyahu claimed that his intention to continue launching airstrikes in any country of his choosing, including Qatar, was justified based upon two primary points: First, he played the game of whataboutism, claiming that he is only doing what the US did after 9/11; his second point was that he was simply hunting down the masterminds behind the Hamas-led October 7 attack in 2023.

The Israeli leader compared his attack on Doha to the US attacks on Afghanistan and assassination of Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan. Yet these are not comparable to Israel’s bombardment of Qatar for a number of reasons. Not only was Afghanistan not a Western ally, and the invasion of that nation is now largely viewed unfavorably by most Americans, but the specific case of Osama Bin Laden’s assassination couldn’t have been more different that the actions Israel took earlier this week.

The US raid, designed to assassinate former al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden, was reportedly carried out on the ground by a special forces unit, which the Pakistani intelligence had knowledge of, while the Israeli assassination attempt was an unannounced cluster of airstrikes without any prior warning. So no, the US actions taken in the advent of so-called “War on Terror” were not congruent with the actions of Israel.

Then we have the claim that Israel is simply going after the masterminds behind the October 7 attack, which by Israel’s own admission was designed and ordered by Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed al-Deif, both of whom have already been killed by Israel.

Within the same 24-hour span of time when Israeli Air Force attacked Doha, they also decided to launch strikes against Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and even Tunisia. The very next day, Yemen was added to that list.

Israel’s Long History Of Assassinations Across The Globe

In reaction to Israel’s attempted assassination, which has now forestalled the Gaza ceasefire negotiations for the immediate future, analysts across the political spectrum have argued that the move was unexpected. We heard the word “unprecedented” over and over.

While it is true that the method of the assassination was perhaps unique against a Western ally, the idea that Israel would carry out an assassination on foreign soil like this was anything but unprecedented. In fact, the Israeli leaders and media both let the world know that this very action was coming.

In late August, Israel’s military chief of staff Eyal Zamir had openly remarked that “the bulk of Hamas’s ruling leadership that remains is abroad, and we will reach them too”. These remarks came following assassination strikes carried out in Yemen’s Capital city, Sana’a, that murdered the nation’s Prime Minister and nearly his entire Cabinet, followed by the announced assassination of Hamas’s military spokesperson Abu Obeida in Gaza City.

Earlier that same month, Israel’s right-wing Channel 14 had reported that according to unnamed senior officials, a decision had been taken to order the assassination of Hamas officials abroad. Keep in mind that Hamas officials move between three primary locations, Qatar, Turkey, and Egypt — all of which are US allies.

Israel had also assassinated former Hamas leader, Ismail Hanniyeh, in July of 2024. This assassination was carried out in Iran’s capital city, Tehran, and occurred just hours after the leader of the Hamas movement had stood side-by-side with newly inaugurated Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. In fact, according to reports, Israel even attempted to kill President Pezeshkian himself, but failed, only injuring him in the attack.

The counter argument to this would be to state that Israel only assassinates its opponents in nations considered enemies to the West. This is also entirely untrue. On January 19, 2010, Israeli Mossad agents used fake European and an Australian passports to infiltrate the United Arab Emirates (UAE), from where they snuck into a hotel in Dubai and murdered Hamas military leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.

In 1997, the Israeli Mossad attempted to assassinate then Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, in Amman, Jordan, but their plot was exposed. The incident led to the poisoning of Meshaal, but the Jordanians had forced Tel Aviv to release the antidote, threatening to cut off their newly signed normalization deal if the Hamas leader died.

They Israelis did not limit their recent assassinations to Arab Nations either, in 2018 Mossad agents gunned down Palestinian academic Fadi al-Batsh in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur. In 2016, Israel assassinated a Tunisian national who had helped Hamas make drone technology name Mohammed al-Zouari, killing him in Tunisia. This wasn’t the first time that Israel had launched such an assassination attack in the north African nation, as back in 1988 it sent a team of commandos on a mission to brutally murder Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Khalil al-Wazir.

But these assassinations were not limited to just Africa and Asia. In October of 1995 the Israeli Mossad carried out the assassination of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) leader, Fathi Shiqaqi, on the streets Sliema in Malta. In 1972, Israel also murdered Palestinian writer and translator, Abdel Wael Zwaiter, in the Italian Capital city of Rome. Israeli officials even later admitted that the intelligence information linking Zwaiter to the specific acts of militancy they killed him for was likely faulty.

The list of assassinations carried out across the globe are countless. The ones which are public knowledge and proven to have been carried out by Israel span across the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America. Evidently, there are also allegations of Israeli assassinations in North Africa and beyond.

Israel was built on assassinations, carried out inside occupied Palestine and around the world. On September 17, 1948, only months after Israel was declared a State, Zionist militants assassinated the United Nations peace mediator, Count Folke Bernadotte, in Jerusalem.

Going even further back into the history of the Zionist movement, members of the Stern gang group had trained their Zionist militants and were plotting to infiltrate London on a mission to assassinate leading British officials, including former Prime Minister Winston Churchill. There was even a specific plot to murder Churchill with a letter bomb.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s father, Ben-Zion Netanyahu was a close associate to the revisionist Zionist movement and said to have influenced the thinking of the likes of the Stern Gang, but was not an official member. On the other hand, Netanyahu’s uncle, Yair Netanyahu, who bares the same name as his son, was an active militant with the Irgun terrorist militia that also carried out assassinations against the British.

Without going into every specific case, Israel and the Zionist movement have always used assassinations on foreign soil to achieve their political goals, in other words, they have employed textbook terrorism. It is therefore no surprise at all that Israel would be capable of carrying out an assassination in Doha, Qatar. In fact, carrying out assassinations in Qatar, or even Turkey or Egypt, is easier for them than murdering Hamas leaders in locations like Iran.

There are simply no consequences for Israel’s actions anywhere in the world, and Israeli leadership have stated publicly (numerous times from within the Knesset itself) that Israel is allowed to “ignore international law“, and that is can legislate “anywhere in the world“. If it chose to do so, it could assassinate Palestinian officials in any Western Capital.

 

 

This week, Israeli President Isaac Herzog openly praised the Doha strikes, yet was still welcomed with open arms to London by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. As a side note, Starmer had commented in the aftermath of October 7, 2023, that Israel had the right to shut off the water supply to Gaza and brags about having Israeli family members.

At this point, even if Israel decided to launch missiles that blew up the United Nations General Assembly building in New York City in order to assassinate a Palestinian Authority official, it is unlikely that the US government would cut off ties with them. Although this comment may seem hyperbolic, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that Washington would allow something of this nature, this is the level of absolute impunity Israel enjoys and the carte blanche it has been granted by its western allies to do anything it chooses, anywhere in the world.