If history tells us anything, it’s that Israel isn’t afraid to neutralize its sworn enemies regardless of where they’re located. This is especially true if an individual is an architect of a terrorist attack that kills Israelis. The Jan. 2 assassination of Hamas deputy political chief Saleh Arouri in Lebanon, purportedly by an Israeli drone, is therefore not a surprise. It was expected and for many in the Israeli national security establishment long overdue. Even Arouri himself expected to die, commenting two months before Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that he was “living on borrowed time.”
Assuming Israel is responsible for Arouri’s killing, it wouldn’t be the first time the country utilized its extensive counterterrorism apparatus to take out a target. The examples are too long to count. The most infamous Israeli operation, codenamed Operation Wrath of God, was a 20-year campaign that tracked and killed members of Black September, an affiliate of the Palestine Liberation Organization, after they murdered 10 Israeli athletes and a local officer during the 1972 Olympic Games. That operation took Israeli intelligence officers to multiple countries, including those outside the Middle East.
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