Mossad has a good record of fulfilling its promises of retribution, whether this has meant hunting down, one by one, the terrorists of Black September responsible for the killing of eleven Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972, or plucking Adolf Eichmann from his house on Garibaldi Street in Buenos Aires in 1960 to whisk him back to Israel for trial, conviction, and execution, or shooting dead a high-ranking PLO official and former head of As-Saiqa, Zuheir Mohsen, as he exited from a casino in Cannes, France, or killing Imad Mughniyeh, a Hezbollah commander, with a car bomb in Damascus, or smothering to death Mahmoud Abdel Rauf al-Mabhouh, the chief for logistics and weapons procurement for Hamas, in a Dubai hotel room in 2010. And now the Israelis have told the Hamas leaders who had been living large in Doha, Qatar, that they will not be safe anywhere, not in Qatar, not in Turkey, nowhere. In response, the Hamas leaders have left Doha and are scattering across the Middle East. More on their fright and flight can be found here: “Hamas officials quit Qatar, shut down cellphones,” JNS, December 14, 2023:
Several Hamas leaders recently left Qatar together with their entourages, cutting off communications including cellphones.
The leaders left for Algeria, Lebanon, Iran and other countries, according to sources cited by Kan News’s Arabic channel.
Among Hamas leaders who have been living for more than a decade in Qatar are Ismail Haniyeh, head of the terrorist group’s political bureau, Mousa Abu Marzouk, and Khaled Mashal. They had been living lives of luxury in the Gulf state, even as most Palestinians in Gaza live in abject poverty.
Officially a major non-NATO ally of the U.S., Qatar, which opened an office for Hamas in 2012, has come under criticism from Congress for backing the terrorist group. A bipartisan group of 113 U.S. lawmakers sent a letter to President Joe Biden on Oct. 16 asking him to put pressure on countries, including Qatar, that support Hamas.
Qatar has managed to fool the Bidenites into thinking that its role as a mediator between Hamas and Israel in the hostage negotiations meant it was no longer on Hamas’ side, but Qatar remains, with Iran, the chief backer of Hamas. It had been delivering suitcases each month filled with $30 million to Hamas in Gaza, until October 7, when Israel stopped the practice cold. Hamas has also provided refuge to all of the leaders of Hamas’ “political wing” until just now, when those leaders, who were welcome to remain, decided on their own to leave Qatar for other countries where they think they will be more secure from potential attacks by Mossad.
Another Hamas leader, Saleh al-Arouri, who lives in Lebanon, also has moved location to Turkey. Al-Arouri is typically located in the southern suburbs of Beirut, where Hezbollah’s power base is located. There, he coordinated between the two groups and organized activities of Hamas’s Lebanon branch, the Kan report said.
The recent movement of Hamas leaders may be related to Israel’s promise to wipe out the terrorist group’s leadership wherever it is found. Ronen Bar, head of the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), said on Dec. 3 that Israel will eliminate the leaders of Hamas in Qatar and Turkey.
Not “may be related to Israel’s promise to wipe out the terrorist group’s leadership” — that “recent movement” by them is obviously the result of that promise.
Following Bar’s comments, a Turkish intelligence official told Reuters that there would be “serious consequences” if Israel attempted to pursue senior Hamas officials “outside the Palestinian territories,” whether in Turkey or elsewhere. The warning was delivered to Israel “following the statements of officials,” according to the source.
As a result, al-Arouri may have felt safer in Turkey, contradicting his past statements that “we are never afraid to die as martyrs.”
Apparently, Saleh Al-Arouri has had a change of mind, and turns out to be very afraid of dying as a “martyr.” He knows that in 1973, Israeli commandos of the Sayeret Matkal, headed by Ehud Barak dressed as a woman, raided Beirut in the middle of the night, coming from the sea, and spread out across the city in groups to kill several top PLO officials, he will not be safe. So now he’s moved himself out of Lebanon, right next door to Israel, to Turkey, much further away, where he is counting on Erdogan’s offer of protection to Hamas leaders, and hopes Turkish threats will keep the Mossad at bay.
Although al-Arouri holds the No. 2 spot in Hamas, a Kan News report in September described him as “the most dangerous man in Hamas,” a puppet master pulling the strings behind the scenes….
If I were Al-Arouri, I wouldn’t count on successfully hiding among the 16 million people in Istanbul. The Mossad has managed to locate and neutralize its targets — who were convinced they would be safe — in Beirut, Damascus, Paris, Rome, London, Athens, Tehran, and São Paulo. Nor should he think the Mossad is afraid of angering Erdogan; Erdogan can hardly be angrier at Israel than he already is, and there is not much more he can do at this point to harm Israel. As we know from the Mavi Marmara incident, Israel is not afraid of taking on, fighting with, and even killing, Turkish citizens when they try to harm Israeli interests.
The head of Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, has specifically cited Qatar and Turkey as places where the Israelis “will eliminate Hamas leaders,” and with the IDF’s devastating successes in Gaza, those leaders have taken that warning to heart, and left Doha with their retinues for places they hope remain unknown to Israel. One or two are taking their chances on Turkey, where they know Erdogan will provide them with security details. Others are determined to hide farther afield by going to Iran. But the Mossad managed to kill, seriatim, five of Iran’s top nuclear scientists, even in the middle of Tehran. Why would the Israelis not be able to do the same to Hamas leaders trying to hide in the same city? I think that given Israel’s anger and determination to avenge those Israelis who were raped, tortured, and murdered on October 7, the three top Hamas leaders who have so hurriedly left Doha — Ismail Haniyeh, Khaled Meshaal, and Mousa Abu Marzouk — despite the billions they stole from the Gazans, are dead men walking.