Israel’s precise, audacious strikes

Israel has done itself, its region and the world a mighty favour taking out two of the Middle East’s most dangerous terrorist leaders. Hezbollah’s top military commander Fuad Shukr, the man responsible for the Golan Heights rocket attack that killed 12 children while they played soccer last weekend, and Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh died (or were “martyred”, their fanatical followers claim) in precise airstrikes within a few hours of each other. Shukr was in Beirut and Haniyeh was in Tehran, where he attended the inauguration of Iran’s new President, Masoud Pezeshkian. There is now a risk of a serious escalation of war. But Israel’s actions deserve the support of the rest of the world as the Jewish state faces an increasing existential threat.

Haniyeh’s courtly manner belied the fact he was at the heart of every Hamas terrorist atrocity for more than 20 years, including the October 7 massacre of 1200 Jews and abduction of 250 men, women and children last year. Since then, from his palatial home in Qatar, Haniyeh, 62, has been the terrorists’ chief negotiator over the hostages and a possible ceasefire, misusing them and Gazans as pawns and human shields. He has blocked generous ceasefire deals and concessions offered by Joe Biden and Israel. Hezbollah military commander Shukr, also 62, deserved his comeuppance no less. He was an arch terrorist as long ago as 1983 when he played a central role in bombing the US Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, killing 300 US and French soldiers. He has been close to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, leading incessant attacks on Israel from Lebanon since October and forcing 90,000 Israelis to flee their homes.

It is nonsense to claim, as Lebanon’s tech billionaire caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati did, that Shukr was anything but a terrorist monster and Israel’s strike was a “clear and explicit violation of international law”. Really? When Hezbollah is targeting innocent children, and Hamas is cruelly detaining hostages and using Gazans as human shields? Fears that the assassination of Haniyeh will sound the death knell to what remains of hopes for a ceasefire in Gaza are legitimate. So are concerns of full-scale war across Israel’s northern border. But Israel had no alternative but to remove both from the battlefield. And Tehran’s terrorist-supporting ayatollahs should be clear-eyed about what the assassination of Haniyeh in the heart of their capital means for their vulnerability.