Israel Formed Secret Unit to Kill or Capture Every Oct. 7 Attacker

Earlier reports following the massacre indicated that the operation also involved Israel’s foreign intelligence agency Mossad, signaling early on that the campaign would likely extend beyond Gaza to Hamas members and leaders based abroad.

The report said the task force compiled a database containing thousands of names, including those of Hamas Nukhba commandos — the terror group’s elite assault force that led much of the Oct. 7 infiltration — as well as other Palestinians identified as having participated in the massacre. Israeli officials told the newspaper that the targets would only be approved after investigators had obtained at least two independent pieces of evidence placing them at the scene of the attack or directly linking them to the assault.

According to the report, Israeli intelligence personnel relied on a wide range of surveillance and intelligence tools to identify suspects, including facial recognition software run on videos posted online by the Hamas terrorists themselves, intercepted communications, cellphone location data, social media images and interrogations of Gaza detainees captured during the war.

The campaign reportedly extended well beyond Hamas’ top leadership, with Israeli officials insisting that “no participant is deemed too insignificant” to evade responsibility. One example cited in the report involves a Palestinian who was filmed driving a tractor through the Gaza border fence during the initial attack on October 7 and who was then killed in an Israeli strike nearly two years later while crossing into Gaza.

Other targets included Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad officials directly linked to the atrocities committed during the massacre. Among them was Ali Sami Muhammad Shakra, a platoon commander in Hamas’s Nukhba Force accused of participating in the kidnapping of American-Israeli hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alon Ohel, Eliya Cohen and Or Levy near the site of the Nova music festival massacre.

The report also highlights the April assassination of Abd al-Rahman Ammar Hassan Khudari, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist accused of participating in the Kibbutz Nir Oz massacre.

House of the Bibas family, Argentine-Israelis kidnapped by Hamas on October 7. Kibbutz Nir Oz, Israel, February 8, 2024 (Joel Pollak / Breitbart News)

One of the most significant recent eliminations took place last week with the assassination of Hamas leader in Gaza, Izz al-Din al-Haddad, whom IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir described as “one of the main perpetrators of the October 7 massacre and the leader of Hamas’ military wing.”

According to Israeli officials, Haddad helped lead the planning and execution of the October 7 attack, managed combat operations against Israeli forces throughout the war and played a central role in Hamas’ hostage captivity system. Israeli officials further accused Haddad of attempting to rebuild Hamas’ military infrastructure during the ongoing ceasefire.

“Today we managed to eliminate it,” Zamir said after the strike. “The IDF will continue to pursue our enemies, strike them and settle scores with all those who participated in the October 7 massacre. »

The Wall Street Journal report said the campaign continued despite the Gaza ceasefire, but at a reduced operational tempo, with a small group of NILI operatives continuing to pass target intelligence to Israeli commanders overseeing military operations.

In Israel, the operation has drawn repeated comparisons with the campaign waged for years after the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, when Israeli intelligence services hunted down Palestinian terrorists involved in the killing of 11 Israeli athletes.

“It will take time, just as it took time after Munich,” Mossad Director David Barnea said in 2024. “But our hands will reach them, wherever they are.” »

The broader campaign also reportedly extended beyond Gaza, including operations linked to the killings of senior Hamas officials Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut and Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, alongside the eliminations inside Gaza of Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif, Marwan Issa and other senior Hamas commanders widely identified by Israel as the main architects of the October 7 massacre.

Shalom Ben Hanan, a former senior Shin Bet official, told the newspaper that the operation was aimed at sending a broader message of deterrence throughout the region.

“The clear message to all future enemies is to think again about the cost of a terrorist operation like this,” he said.

Michael Milstein, a former senior Israeli military intelligence officer specializing in Palestinian affairs, also said the campaign reflected broader regional realities.

“In the Middle East, revenge is an important part of the discourse,” Milstein told the newspaper. “It’s about how seriously people in your environment view you. Unfortunately, that’s the language of this neighborhood.”

Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jklein@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.