Israeli security chief in recording vows to hunt down Hamas abroad

Israel will hunt down Hamas in Lebanon, Turkey and Qatar even if it takes years, the head of Israel’s domestic security agency Shin Bet said in a recording aired by Israel’s public broadcaster Kan on Sunday (3 December).

It was unclear when Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar made the remarks or to whom.

The agency itself declined to comment on the report.

“The cabinet has set us a goal, in street talk, to eliminate Hamas. This is our Munich. We will do this everywhere, in Gaza, in the West Bank, in Lebanon, in Turkey, in Qatar. It will take a few years but we will be there to do it.”

By Munich, Bar was referring to Israel’s response to the 1972 killing of 11 Israeli Olympic team members when gunmen from the Palestinian Black September group launched an attack on the Munich games.

Israel responded by carrying out a targeted assassination campaign against Black September operatives and organizers over several years and in several countries.

Israel has vowed to annihilate Hamas after its gunmen on 7 October burst through the border with Gaza, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 240 hostage.

More than 15,500 people have been killed so far during Israel’s offensive in Gaza since, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

Other than in Gaza, Hamas leaders reside in or frequently visit Lebanon, Turkey and Qatar. Qatar helped to mediate a week-long truce that broke down on Friday.

Over the years, various countries have offered some protection for Hamas, designated a terrorist group by Australia, Canada, the European Union, Israel, Japan and the United States.

In 1997, Israeli Mossad agents botched the poisoning of then-Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Jordan. Israel had to give Jordan an antidote to save Meshaal’s life. Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu was prime minister at the time.

Israel offensive builds across entire Gaza strip

Israeli ground forces were confronting Hamas fighters across the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said on Sunday in its clearest indication yet that a planned ground offensive in the enclave’s refugee-crowded south had begun as Israeli bombing killed and wounded dozens of Palestinians.

The Hamas Palestinian militant group said its fighters clashed with Israeli troops about 2 km from the southern city of Khan Younis.

Residents, many of whom had moved there to flee earlier attacks in the Israel-Palestinian conflict, said they could hear tank fire and feared a new Israeli ground offensive was building.

The Israeli military earlier ordered people to evacuate some areas in and near the city, but made no announcement of any new southern ground assault.

“The IDF (Israel Defence Forces) continues to extend its ground operation against Hamas centres in all of the Gaza Strip,” spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters in Tel Aviv. “The forces are coming face-to-face with terrorists and killing them.”

Early on Monday, Hamas media quoted emergency services as saying an Israeli strike killed three civil emergency workers in Gaza City in the north of the coastal enclave.

The renewed warfare followed the end on Friday of a seven-day pause in the fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas militants which had allowed an exchange of 105 hostages held by Hamas, most of them Israelis, for 240 Palestinian prisoners.

The latest violence took place despite calls from the United States — Israel’s closest ally — for Israel to limit harm to Palestinian civilians in the new phase of its offensive, focused on the south.

(Edited by Georgi Gotev)

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