Munich-style spy unit hunts Oct 7 planners

ISRAELI intelligence has formed a unit to hunt down the perpetrators of the Oct 7 attacks, echoing the bloody campaign to eliminate the Black September terrorists behind the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre.

According to unattributed briefings given to the Israeli press and others, Israel’s two main security agencies, the Shin Bet and Mossad, have launched a joint operation to track down and eliminate all those involved in last month’s massacre. The unit is named after the First World War-era Jewish underground organisation “Nili”, an acronym for a Hebrew phrase which translates as “the Eternal One of Israel will not lie.”

It is said to be targeting Hamas’s 2,500-strong Nukhba commando division which led the Oct 7 massacre, together with those, both in and outside Gaza, who were involved in its direction and planning.

“It is significant [that] the Mossad is involved,” said Dr Ahron Bregman, a senior teaching fellow at King’s College London and author of several books on Israeli intelligence. “It means they are also going after people who are outside the occupied territories and Israel".

The Sunday Telegraph has talked to two senior sources closely linked to Israel’s defence-security bureaucracy who say the plan is both “likely and necessary”, Dr Bregman has talked to a third. “The unit is dedicated to hunting down and eliminating every individual who played a role in the massacre", the

Jerusalem Post reported.

The initiative is being compared to Operation Wrath of God, a covert mission authorised by Golda Meir, the then Israeli prime minister, in 1972 to assassinate those involved in the Munich Olympics massacre, in which 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team were murdered.

After its initiation, more than a dozen Black September and Palestinian Liberation Organisation operatives were killed across Europe and Middle East.

Some 20-35 individuals were placed on the initial kill list and the operation ran for more than 20 years. It is not known how many died. “The aim was not so much revenge but mainly to make them [the Palestinian terrorists] frightened,” David Kimche, the former deputy head of Mossad, said later. “We wanted to make them look over their shoulders and feel that we are upon them.”

Writing in Foreign Affairs on Friday, Assaf Orion, a former head of strategic planning on the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) general staff, cited the reported establishment of the new unit as an example of Israel rethinking its recent strategic approach to terrorism. The effort to neutralise those responsible for Munich “required ongoing intelligence and operational efforts across the globe and political backing in a multiyear campaign”, he said. “It resulted in some mishaps, but it established the understanding that Israel will not accept any such attacks on its people”.

Dr Bregman said the new operation was part of Israel’s effort to eradicate Hamas, something he suspects can never be done but is none the less being attempted. He said Shin Bet and the IDF would deal with Hamas’s Nukhba division, others who crossed into Israel on Oct 7 and the Gazan leadership of Hamas – an operation that is well under way.

The targeting of Hamas’s leadership overseas would be “much more difficult” and would need political sign-off at cabinet level, he said.

“Israel will also go after Hamas members who are not in the Gaza Strip, but living in places such as Qatar and Turkey,”

he said. “It will go on for years.” Ret Col Miri Eisin, former deputy head of Israel’s Combat Intelligence Corps, told Scripps News that the Nili would be “very focused on the top echelon” of Hamas’s leadership.

“It will use a variety of capabilities, both in gathering the information and being able afterwards to target all of the different Hamas terrorists,” she said.

Dr Bregman cautioned that overseas assassination missions come with “huge risks”, diplomatic and otherwise.

For example, in September 1997, two Mossad agents and a support team were caught in Jordan after spraying Khaled Mashal, the former Hamas leader, in the ear with poison. Jordan forced Israel to provide an antidote to bring Mashal out of a coma. It also had to release Ahmed Yassin, the founder of Hamas, who then returned to Gaza.

Mossad and Shin Bet target Hamas leadership in mission compared to 1970s’ Operation Wrath of God

‘Israel will also go after Hamas members in places such as Qatar and Turkey. It will go on for years’