The Jewish Chronicle has published a lengthy article discussing how Israel managed to locate, target and assassinate Hamas leader Mohammed Deif. Here's an excerpt.
Fauda-style undercover IDF soldiers disguised as beggars and vegetable sellers were key to Israel’s daring plot to assassinate the Hamas commander known as the ‘Master of Camouflage’ last month, the JC can reveal.
Until now the details of how the Israelis pulled off the assassination of Mohammed Deif, Hamas’s most senior military commander and architect of the October 7 massacre, were unknown.
But that the missile attack which killed him – and his deputy, Rafa Salama – last month only came after a secret operation within Gaza by an undercover IDF team that pinpointed his location.
Based on interviews with security sources, it can now be reported that one agent posed as a market stallholder, selling vegetables outside the building Deif was believed to visit regularly.
The JC can also reveal that the Israeli agents’ exit plan had to change at the last minute.
This new account of the audacious mission comes amid feverish speculation about Israel's assassination methods, which have recently claimed the scalps of two out of three of Hamas’s top leaders, Deif and Ismail Haniyeh, as well as Hezbollah's number two, Fuad Shukr.
There's more at the link, including links to other articles about the killing of Ismail Haniyeh in Teheran and a hostage rescue operation, both providing detailed background information. Very interesting reading.
The article, plus the other two linked above, illustrate how carefully such operations have to be planned. The slightest misstep and the target(s) may realize that they're being targeted, and disappear or change their routine so that it's no longer possible to hit them in the short term. I think it's likely that Israel's intelligence teams are better at that sort of thing than US teams, which have notoriously targeted innocent individuals and families on several occasions, only to find out that their real targets were never there.
Peter
I'm surprised the Israelis would permit that much info about their operations to escape. It's not going to help their future missions.
ReplyDeleteThat's one way to look at it. On the other hand, Hamas now knows just how far Israel will go, and how many resources it will commit, to accomplish something like that. The remaining Hamas commanders must be sleeping very uneasily in their beds - which may have been as much the point of the exercise as killing Haniyeh.
DeleteYou've heard of double spies, or even triple spies. You know there are layers upon layers in the world of undercover covert ops. What is, is not as it appears. Or is it?
DeleteConfusion becomes an end to itself. Well known is the advantage of the use of deceit on the battlefield.
Say you read this same story in The New York Times. How much of it would you believe? Which parts would you think to be true and which parts to be false? Sowing a bit of false among the truth is a favored tactic. Then again, the message contained therein may be for only a few. That is, not to inform the masses.
Why shouldn't such article be construed as a part of the game of espionage. I myself know little about the subject. What I do know is that which is exposed is usually by design, but not for the purpose it seems. Too, the message may have multiple purposes.
Paranoi is a vert effective weapon.
DeleteInteresting that there are people bitching about the 'collateral damage' of Israel's strike. Oh, noes, wymyns and chilldrens splattered everywhere!!!
ReplyDeleteThese same don't believe or don't care about Israeli children splattered everywhere. Like the Druze children.
"Israel is Bad and Israel's Enemies are Good" seems to be all these people see.
And, yes, the Israelis have done this, showing the world what they can do, before. It's part of an effective espionage and retaliation system.
This is why I always look at vegetable sellers askance. They're up to no good, and the only question is which, of many, versions of no-good they're up to simultaneously.
ReplyDeleteWhy would the Izzies tell the world how they do these ops? That's stupid. It makes using such a method untenable in future instances.
ReplyDeleteThe Israelis have been doing this since before independence.
ReplyDeleteIt's the reason they're still a country.
It also doesn't bode well for any members of Hamas going forward.
I suspect official policy, to the top, will be to make that entire movement extinct, one way or another.
I think they learned their lesson in 1983 when they let Arafat and the PLO off the hook, instead of finishing them all off in Beirut when they had the chance.
I think the Israelis have learned a great deal since October 7, and what they "allow to escape" is, probably, either no longer in use, having been replaced by more efficient means, and whatever the enemy may learn about Israeli operations is less than the proverbial tip of the iceberg.
ReplyDeleteOctober 7 was at its base a huge intelligence failure and I'm confident they have taken the message to heart; there will come a point at which the supply of Hamas leadership (and, probably, that of Hezbellah as well) has been exhausted, after which they will start in on the next several tiers. Meaning we may hear about occasional automobile accidents, severe drug allergy reactions, surfing accidents, house fires, lightning strikes, etc. attributable to no individual or organization; pure coincidences, simple happenstance.
One of the interesting developments of the war in Ukraine is learning about how quick the Russian surveil, detect to engage surveillance system works. When their surveillance systems pick up a target they can generally engage it within 5 minutes. Our OODA loop is a hell of a lot longer and less inclined to action in any event.
ReplyDelete