Since its establishment in 1948, on occupied Palestinian territory, Israel has adopted a policy of assassinations and physical liquidation as an established doctrine in its dealings with the Palestinians, without regard to any political or legal consequences.

It was only a few months after the declaration of its existence, until the assassinations made their way into the history of Israel, when the Zionist gangs assassinated the United Nations mediator between Arabs and Jews Count Fulk Bernadotte, who was proposing ideas for peace, including an end to Jewish immigration to the Palestinian territories, and the survival of Jerusalem under Arab sovereignty. .

Since the assassination of Count Bernadotte, the assassinations have not stopped, the latest being two weeks ago, when Israel assassinated the military official of the Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip Bahaa Abu al-Atta.

The assassination of Abu al-Atta coincided with the attempted assassination of a member of the political leadership of the Islamic Jihad movement Akram al-Ajouri, with shelling in the Syrian capital of Damascus, but he survived, while his son and his companion were martyred.

In 71 years, Israelis carried out more than 2,700 assassinations, an average of 38 a year inside and outside Israel,

Israel outperforms any other country, ignoring international conventions, treaties, laws and conventions.

Scholars and writers
The assassinations were not confined to military leaders and activists. They targeted political leaders, scholars, and writers. Israel did not differentiate in the theaters of assassination between an Arab or a foreign country, a friend or an enemy.

Often, Israel does not formally acknowledge responsibility for cross-border assassinations, usually through Israeli journalists, writers and media, after years of liquidation.

In July 1972, Israel assassinated Palestinian writer and journalist Ghassan Kanafani by blowing up his car in Beirut with an explosive device.

In March 1979, the Mossad intelligence service assassinated Wadih Haddad, a PFLP leader, in an East German hotel by placing poison in one of his favorite chocolate bars.

Intensive operations
During the PLO leadership in Lebanon and Tunisia between the 1970s and 1980s, the Mossad assassinated political and military leaders, notably Khalil al-Wazir, Salah Khalaf, Kamal Adwan, Abu Youssef al-Najjar, Hayel Abdel Hamid, and others.

To Malta, the Mossad sent Kidon, its best-selling unit, in October 1995, shooting former head of Islamic Jihad Fathi Shikaki with gunshot wounds to the head.

In January 1996, Israel assassinated Yahya Ayyash, an engineer of the Al-Qassam Brigades (Hamas military wing), by a remote-controlled cell phone explosion he was using in a house in northern Gaza.

In February 1992, Israel assassinated Hizbullah secretary-general Abbas al-Moussawi by shelling his car with rockets in the town of Tufahata (southern Lebanon), killing him, his wife and son.

Mounting curve
With the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000, a new phase of armed action, led by Palestinian factions, began.

Under Ariel Sharon, Israel assassinated dozens of faction leaders and intifada activists.
The most prominent political figures assassinated in this era: Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, and his successor in Gaza Abdel Aziz Rantisi, and the Secretary-General of the Popular Front Abu Ali Mustafa, and the leaders of Hamas: Ismail Abu Shanab and Ibrahim Al-Maqadmah, Jamal Mansour, and Jamal Saleem.

It also assassinated dozens of military commanders, most notably the leaders of the Al-Qassam Brigades and Al-Aqsa: Salah Shehadeh, Adnan al-Ghoul, Mahmoud Abu al-Hanoud, Raed al-Karmi, and Jihad al-Amarin.

For two years, Israel besieged Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Ramallah until he died under mysterious circumstances in November 2004, after being transferred for treatment in France.

According to medical examinations and press investigations, the cause of death was injected with poisonous polonium.

Activate again
During the last decade, under Benjamin Netanyahu's second term as prime minister, Israel has activated assassinations through the Shin Bet and Mossad.

In January 2010, Mossad assassinated Qassam Brigades leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel.

During the wars in Gaza in 2008, 2012 and 2014, Israeli aircraft assassinated leaders of Hamas, namely: Said Siam, and Nizar Rayan, along with military commanders: Ahmed al-Jabari, Raed al-Attar, and Mohammed Abu Shammala.

In Bulgaria, Mossad assassinated former PFLP activist Omar al-Nay, found dead in a car on February 26, 2016.

Mossad assassinated Tunisian engineer Mohamed Zouari in December 2016, in front of his home in Sfax, by being shot by Mossad agents.

Later, it was announced that Zouari belonged to the Qassam Brigades, and oversees the UAV manufacturing project.

Fadi al-Batsh, an electrical and academic engineer close to Hamas, was assassinated on April 21, 2018.

Failed operations
In spite of the great success of most of the assassinations, some failures have occurred.

The Kidon cell injected Meshaal with toxic substance that remained in intensive care. The unit was exposed, and two of its members were arrested, angering then-Jordanian King Hussein Bin Talal, who insisted that Israel hand over the anti-toxin vaccine to save Meshaal's life.

Over the past 30 years, Israel has failed to assassinate the Qassam Brigades Commander-in-Chief Mohammed al-Daif in Gaza, where he has tried three times to get rid of him by aerial bombardment, the latest such attempt in the 2014 war, in which he killed his child and wife, and the guest is still alive.

Question the feasibility of the assassination
Israel's reliance on assassinations is due to a pre-emptive policy that thwarts armed attacks that were about to kill Israelis, according to Israeli expert Eli Ashkenazi.

Former Shin Bet chief Yoram Cohen says assassinations are often an effective weapon at the leading levels of Palestinian organizations.

However, he believes that the large missile capabilities of the Palestinians in Gaza "make us deterred from carrying out immediate assassinations against their leaders."

He criticized the Israeli expert Ronen Bergman's continued reliance on assassinations; he believes that it achieves goals tactically, but that ultimately led to a strategic failure, saying that the achievement of strategic objectives is done with political sophistication and political discourse, not special operations.

The Israeli writer Nati Yafit concludes that the effectiveness of the assassination is still limited in terms of weakening the Palestinian organizations; assassinations fit with small organizations, but the assassination of political leaders seems more dangerous and implications; because it is a break of the general rules.