Israel will track down all Hamas terrorists responsible for the October 7th attack on Israeli border towns, in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed and more than 240 taken hostage, the country’s spy master said on Wednesday. The attack provoked the current Israel-Hamas war.
“Let every Arab mother know that if her son took part, directly or indirectly, in the October 7 massacre, his blood is forfeit,” Mossad director David Barnea said near Tel Aviv, during a eulogy for his predecessor Zvi Zamir.
He added: “Today we are again in the middle of a war. The Mossad, today as it was 50 years ago, is committed to settling the score with the murderers who rampaged through the Gaza periphery on October 7 – with the planners, and with those who dispatched them. It will take time, as it took time after the Munich massacre, but we will get them, no matter where they are.”
Israeli officials have said the masterminds of the Oct. 7 attack — Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza, and Mohammed Deif, the commander of the military wing — remain at large and Israel has affirmed it may need more months to track them down.
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Israel’s Mossad Director David Barnea speaks during the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) World Summit in the central coastal city of Herzliya on September 10, 2023. (GIL COHEN-MAGEN/AFP via Getty Images)
The comments come a day after a senior Hamas official was killed in Beirut, Lebanon and as the Israeli military has carried out strikes to take out Hamas operatives in the Gaza Strip and its surrounding countries.
The leader, Saleh al-Arouri, was killed in a drone strike in the Lebanese capital on Tuesday. A military spokesperson said that Israeli forces were placed in a high state of readiness to respond to any potential retaliation.
An Israeli soldier operates in the Gaza Strip amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in this handout picture released on December 21, 2023. (Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo)
The current war in Gaza is entering its 4th month and Israel has continually said it would remain in Gaza until it achieves its military objective to eliminate Hamas’ presence in the territory.
“Anyone who thinks we’re going to stop is detached from reality,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this week.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs a Cabinet meeting at the Kirya, which houses the Israeli Ministry of Defence, in Tel Aviv, Israel on December 17, 2023. (MENAHEM KAHANA/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo)
Netanyahu and other Israeli lawmakers have also emphasized the importance of Hamas releasing every Israeli hostage.
In response, Hamas has said it would release the remaining 129 hostages once the war has ended. The two sides previously agreed to a temporary cease-fire, when they exchanged Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners and allowed humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.
Israeli soldiers fire a mortar shell from southern Israel towards the Gaza Strip, in a position near the Israel-Gaza border , Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024. Heavy fighting raged in central and southern Gaza on Wednesday as fears mounted of a regional escalation following a strike in Beirut that killed one of the top Hamas leaders. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
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As of the new year, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry says more than 22,300 Palestinians have been killed and an additional 57,000 have been injured in the Gaza Strip during the Israel-Hamas war.
Reuters contributed to this report.
