Israel said prepping teams to carry out targeted killings of Hamas leaders

Israel has reportedly told foreign allies that it is readying teams to carry out the targeted killing of leaders of the Hamas terrorist group who live abroad in retaliation for a wave of deadly terror attacks.

Unnamed intelligence sources told Britain’s The Times newspaper in an article published Monday that a “clear message” needed to be sent to the terror organization.

While Hamas has not taken responsibility for most of the attacks since March 22 that have left 19 people in Israel and the West Bank dead, the group’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar has repeatedly called for Palestinians to assault Israelis and the group has publicly praised the perpetrators, encouraging more attacks.

However, the terror group did claim responsibility for an attack that killed a security officer guarding the West Bank settlement of Ariel last month.

According to The Times report, while some Israeli legislators and pundits have advocated killing Sinwar in response to the current terror wave, which he has urged on from the coastal enclave, officials are wary of carrying out targeted killings in Gaza or the West Bank for fear it could spark rocket fire on Israeli towns and cities.

The report said that, instead, any potential targeted killings are more likely to take place in other countries in the region where Hamas leaders live, with Lebanon and Qatar given as examples.

Palestinians chant slogans and wave Hamas flags after Friday prayers during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan near the Dome of the Rock at the Temple Mount compound in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 22, 2022. (AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)

The report said targets could include Saleh al-Arouri, a deputy leader of the terror group who splits his time between Qatar, Turkey and Lebanon and is in charge of West Bank operations.

The newspaper also named Zaher Jabarin, a senior figure in Hamas responsible for its finances.

The report said that Hamas is thought to have been warned of the potential resumption of targeted killings, by the intelligence agencies of a number of countries in Europe and the Middle East.

Israeli security forces have conducted numerous targeted killing operations over the country’s 74-year history. Use of the tool peaked during the Second Intifada in the early 2000s, when Israeli forces took out Hamas leaders in an attempt to staunch a wave of attacks in Israeli cities.

Israel has previously also been accused of carrying out hits on Hamas terror operatives abroad. Hamas has blamed Israel for the 2016 killing of Mohammed al-Zoari, a Tunisian aviation scientist and engineer who developed the terror group’s unmanned drones.

In 2018, Fadi Mohammed al-Batsh, a Gaza-born electrical engineer and avowed Hamas member, was gunned down by two motorcyclists as he walked to dawn prayers in Kuala Lumpur in 2018, in a killing widely blamed on Israel.

In Dubai, in 2010, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a key Hamas missile purchaser and importer, was assassinated in his hotel room in a killing widely attributed to…