On January 3rd, 2024, Mossad chief, David Barnea spoke on the aftermath of the bloody October 7th massacre. 

“Today, we are in the height of a war, and the Mossad, as it was fifty years ago, is obligated to bring to account the murderers who raided into Israel on October 7th, along with their planners and their senders. It will take time, as it did after the Munich massacre, but we will lay our hands on them, wherever they may be. Let every Arab mother know that if her son participated, directly or indirectly, in the October 7 massacre, that he is marked for death.”

Barnea’s reference to the Munich Olympics massacre in 1972 was directly connected to the fact that he was speaking at the funeral of legendary former Mossad chief, Zvi Zamir. It was Zamir, fifty years earlier, who executed Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir’s order to settle the score with the Black September terrorists who perpetrated the Munich Olympics massacre. During the 1970s and 80s, in what was dubbed Operation Wrath of God, the Mossad carried out a targeted assassination campaign, eliminating all those involved in the Munich massacre. 

“In this mission,” Barnea continued, “Zvi’s spirit and leadership will accompany us.” 
Making Barnea’s words even more pointed was the targeted assassination of Saleh al-Arouri, a senior Hamas leader, only a day earlier. Though Israel, as usual, didn’t claim responsibility for the killing, it is widely believed to be behind it. 

This article is the first in a series that will discuss Mossad assassinations. 

Though the state of Israel rarely acknowledges, let alone officially claims responsibility for, actions of this sort, I will proceed with the commonly accepted belief that the Mossad did indeed carry out these assassinations. 
No information will be detailed in these articles that cannot be found on open sources. 

Assassination of Saleh al-Arouri

Since I just mentioned al-Arouri, let’s start with his recent demise. 
al-Arouri, a top leader in Hamas, had been living in Beirut, Lebanon since 2017. He was considered a marked man for some time (also by the US), but after the October 7th massacre, efforts were stepped up. 

One difficulty in targeting al-Arouri was his residence in the Dahieh neighborhood in southern Beirut, considered a Hezbollah stronghold. Not only did this pose practical difficulties in reaching him, but the fear was that hitting him there, while he was under Hezbollah protection, could spark a further escalation in Hezbollah attacks on Israel’s northern border.   

There are a few conflicting versions of what happened next, but the most likely is that on January 2nd, 2024, at 5:41pm, al-Arouri’s Beirut apartment was hit by a GBU-39, Small Diameter Bomb (SDB), launched from an Israeli Air Force fighter jet. The precision-guided glide bomb flew into the apartment’s study, killing al-Arouri and six other Hamas members he was meeting with. The explosion was large enough to eliminate all seven Hamas members in the room but precise enough not to harm others or cause severe damage to other apartments in the building.

Prior to his assassination, al-Arouri appears to have felt safe enough in Hezbollah’s stronghold to relax his guard, neglecting some of the precautionary measures he may have otherwise taken. This allowed Mossad to understand his movements and routines and to determine the right time to strike.

In what’s called a Pattern of Life Analysis, all available information about al-Arouri was collected: the location of his residence, his work, movements, activities, habits, along with personality traits, weaknesses, friends, colleagues and family members. 

The intelligence led to the decision to target him in his apartment, so it too needed to be thoroughly examined: the apartment’s location in the building, the layout of the kitchen, the bathroom, the living room, the study, the thickness of the walls and the width of the windows. The smallest details were scrutinized: when al-Arouri got up in the morning, where he drank his coffee, where he usually sat in the living room and when he occupied his study. 

Various types of intelligence, including HUMINT, SIGINT, cyber and physical surveillance helped pinpoint the best time to strike. It was crucial to know who he was going to be with and whether there would be individuals in the vicinity that the Mossad didn’t want eliminated (such as Hezbollah operatives). 

The operation that led to al-Arouri’s elimination required precise planning and accurate intelligence. In much the same way, a similar assassination occurred about two years earlier in Gaza. In that operation, three senior figures were killed by a bomb that penetrated two floors, through an adjacent apartment, only detonating inside the intended room, where it killed all three.

As Israel’s all-out war on Palestinian terrorist organizations continues, we are very likely to see more targeted assassinations of this sort in the coming months and years. 

Get my book, Surveillance Zone now!
Go behind the scenes of corporate surveillance detection & covert special operations. Get a first-person account of actual covert operations I’ve participated in. Learn the secrets of the trade and discover a hidden world that’s all around you.