Targeting Hamas: Unraveling Israeli assassinations' saga in the Palestinian struggle

Since the emergence of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) as a prominent player in the Palestinian struggle in 1987, Israel has placed its leaders and key figures in the circle of targeting.

Before Saleh al-Arouri, Deputy Head of the Political Bureau of Hamas, whom Israel assassinated in a bombing in Beirut, there was a list of assassinations that targeted the most important and prominent political and military leaders in Hamas. 

These individuals were involved in planning and executing significant operations against Israelis. Here are some of the key figures:

The man with the "seven souls" and the "terror of Zionists," Emad Akel:

One of the historical leaders of the Hamas movement and one of the most prominent founders of its military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, was responsible for forming the "Al-Qassam" groups in the West Bank.

For two years, he evaded pursuits and checkpoints by the occupation forces until the morning of Wednesday, November 24, 1993. 

The Israeli forces were able to surround him and a number of his companions in the Shuja'iyya neighborhood in Gaza City, and he was killed after being hit in the face with an anti-tank shell.

Yahya Ayyash: The Resistance's engineer and the occupation's "nightmare:"

Described by Israel as the "fox" and the man with a thousand faces, a genius, and the number one wanted, he is the one who introduced the concept of "explosive belts" and "martyrdom operations" into the resistance "dictionary."

He was assassinated by Israeli intelligence on January 5, 1996, using an explosive device planted in his mobile phone, detonated remotely by an Apache helicopter while he was speaking to his father.

From Ayyash to Salah Shehade.

In 1984 - three years before the founding of Hamas - he established a military apparatus called the "Palestinian Mujahideen" that carried out a series of operations against Israel. 

Salah Shehade remained at the head of the apparatus leadership until it was transformed into the Al-Qassam Brigades in 1991.

Israel arrested him from 1988 to 2000, and two years after his release, he was assassinated in an Israeli raid that targeted his house in the Daraj neighborhood in Gaza City, killing him and 18 people, including his wife and his companion, a leader in the Al-Qassam Brigades.

In 2004, Israel reached the "spiritual leader" of the Hamas movement, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

In 1987, he formed an "Islamic organization" with the leaders of "Islamic action" in the Gaza Strip to resist the occupation and work to liberate Palestine.

He was arrested several times in Israeli prisons and was subjected to numerous assassination attempts.

Until Israel "defeated" him at dawn on March 22, 2004, in an operation supervised by then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, while he was leaving the mosque, by launching several missiles from an Apache helicopter, killing seven of his companions and wounding two of his sons.

Less than a month after the assassination of Sheikh Yassin, Israel continued targeting the senior leaders and founders of the movement, and it was Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi's "turn."

He was nicknamed the "Lion of Palestine" and was assassinated in a raid on his car in Gaza City on April 17, 2004.

While Israel claims that these measures are necessary for national security, the assassination of these leaders left a lasting impact on Hamas, prompting the movement to adapt and develop in the face of ongoing challenges and overcome them to return with the Al-Aqsa Flood operation.