Nowhere to hide: Axis of Evil leaders hunted down

One by one, Israel is picking off the terrorist leaders in Iran’s Axis of Evil.

In doing so, it is sending a chilling message to those who command Iran and its terror proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah that if they order the murder of innocent Israelis, there is nowhere to hide. One day, when they least expect it, an Israeli drone, an assassin’s bullet, or a bomb will have their name on it.

The brazen assassination of Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran — the most senior Hamas leader to be killed since October 7 — came just a day after Israel said it killed Hezbollah’s most senior military official, Fuad Shukr, in a drone strike in Beirut.

No-one should mourn the loss of these two killers.

Each of these men had directly ordered the deaths of innocent Israelis. Haniyeh was wanted by the International Criminal Court for his role in Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, including “extermination, murder, taking of hostages, rape and sexual assault in detention”.

Israel says Hezbollah’s Shukr was the commander responsible for the horrendous strike in the Golan Heights last weekend which killed 12 children and teenagers playing soccer. He was also wanted by the US for his role in the 1983 bombing attack that killed roughly 300 American and French soldiers in Beirut.

Targeted assassinations like these are notoriously difficult to carry out and they show how successful Israel’s intelligence network, including Mossad, have been in drawing targets on the backs of those responsible for October 7 and its aftermath.

The death of Haniyeh was a coup in itself, but the manner of his killing — when he was among his fellow terror leaders in Tehran after attending the inauguration of Iran’s new president — was calculated to send the message to Iran and its proxies that no one is safe.

Just before he was killed in a ‘raid’ in Tehran the 62 year old Haniyeh was seen mingling with Hezbollah’s deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem and the leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Ziyad Al-Nakhalah. He also had a face-to-face meeting with Iran’s new president Masoud Pezeshkian and its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The fact that Haniyeh was then assassinated in the same city, among them all, will surely make the others wonder if they could be next.

The death of Haniyeh is a major blow to Hamas, because he was the international face of the terror group and was the leading negotiator in the deliberations with Israel over the plan for a ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza. It was Haniyeh who had repeatedly delayed these negotiations with absurd demands and it was he who was primarily responsible for the repeated failure to strike a deal.

Under the secretive and complex leadership structure of Hamas, Haniyeh was one of the group’s three top commanders. The others, who are also wanted by the ICC for war crimes are Hamas’s military leader, Muhammad Deif, and its leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar.

Israel attempted to kill Deif in Gaza earlier this month and although Hamas claims he survived the bombing, his fate remains unclear.

Haniyeh was close to the spiritual founder of Hamas, Sheikh Yassin, and rose through the ranks of the organisation, first becoming leader in Gaza, before taking on overall leadership of the group’s political wing in 2017.

His death has further complicated hopes for an agreement on a ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, brokered by third parties in Qatar.

Haniyeh’s assassination will not be the end of Hamas, there are always new leaders to take his place, and it may not make the terror group any more likely to put down its arms. But it does send the message that those Hamas leaders who sanction the killing of innocent Israelis and support using Palestinian civilians in Gaza as human shields, will pay a price for their murderous behaviour.