Hamas’ Ismail Haniyeh to "The Engineer" Yahya Ayyash — List of Israel’s targeted killings over the years

• Israel has reportedly killed the top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran’s Tehran.
• Israel on Tuesday revealed that it has eliminated Hezbollah's senior military commander Fuad Shukr.
• Here are some of the notable targeted killings or alleged assassinations by Israel over the years – both confirmed and unconfirmed.

Israel has reportedly killed Ismail Haniyeh, a top Hamas leader in Tehran, Iran while he was visiting the country for the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. He had reportedly met Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday.

While Israel has not claimed responsibility for the assassination which resulted in the death of Haniyeh and his bodyguard, Hamas and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have confirmed that he has been killed. The IRGC in a statement said Haniyeh was killed in "a treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran".


According to Israel, Haniyeh was responsible for the brutal October 7 terrorist attack on Israel, which left over a thousand people dead and resulted in several people being taken hostage.

This came just hours after The Israeli military confirmed that it eliminated Hezbollah's senior military commander Fuad Shukr. According to Israel, Shukr was responsible for the rocket attack on Golan Heights which killed 12 children playing in the ground.

Shukr had a $5 million bounty on him from the United States as he reportedly played a “central role” in the 1983 bombing of a US Marines barracks in Beirut, which killed 241 US military personnel.

Israel's history of targeted killings

From operations such as Wrath of God to individual targeted attacks to kill key enemy leaders, Israel is notoriously aggressive against foreign threats. While the country’s agencies have themselves confirmed some of these killings, some have been attributed to them by others. Here're some major ones:

1. Saleh al-Arouri the deputy leader of Hamas, was killed in Beirut in an Israeli airstrike in January this year, marking a significant blow to Hamas leadership.

2. Sayyed Razi Mousavi, a senior commander in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was killed in Syria in a suspected Israeli airstrike in December 2023.

3. In May 2021, as part of the Operation Guardian of the Walls, Hamas commander Mohammed Abdullah Fayyad was killed in an air strike allegedly by the Israel Air Force.

4. A senior Hamas military commander, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh who was one of the founders of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades was assassinated in Dubai in 2010.

5. Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, another senior Hamas military commander was reportedly assassinated in Dubai in 2010.

6. Yahya Ayyash, A Hamas bombmaker, nicknamed "The Engineer", was assassinated by a booby-trapped cell phone in Gaza in 1996.

7. Gerald Bull, a Canadian scientist working on the Iraqi supergun project was killed by Israeli agents in Brussels in 1990.

8. The notable assassinations by the country also include the operation Wrath of God, which took place from 1972 to 1992 and was aimed at targeting individuals responsible for the Munich massacre. For those unaware, during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Germany, eight members of the Palestinian terrorist organization Black September killed two members of the Israeli Olympic team and took nine others hostage, who were later killed after a failed rescue attempt. As part of the operation, Israel is believed to have killed over ten people over the next two decades. This also resulted in the death of a civilian in Norway.

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