The Israeli security agencies Mossad and Shin Bet have reportedly established a new unit to track down and eliminate perpetrators of the 7th October attack by Hamas. According to Israeli media reports, the new unit will be named after the World War I-era Jewish underground organisation “Nili”. It is an acronym for a Hebrew phrase that translates as “the Eternal One of Israel will not lie.”
Mossad is the intelligence unit of Israel, while Shin Bet is the country’s internal security service.
Nili will have the dedicated task of hunting down and eliminating every Hamas terrorist who was involved in the terrorist attacks and ground invasion in Southern Israel, two weeks ago.
The new unit, Nili, has been specifically set up to dismantle Hamas’s special commando unit Nukhba (“elite”) within the military wing of the Palestinian terror outfit. On 7th October, terrorists of this Nukhba unit, thousands in numbers, infiltrated Israel and carried out mass killings, rapes, and abducted over 250 Israeli and foreign nationals to Gaza. The Hamas terrorists invaded southern Israel through land, sea and air, killing over 1400 people and injuring many more.
A large number of Hamas terrorists who had entered Israel were killed by Israeli forces, but others managed to sneak back into the Gaza Strip. Many of them abducted civilians and took them to Gaza, and continue to keep them hostage. Now this Nili unit will be responsible for hunting down those Hamas terrorists who went back to Gaza after the massacre near the Gaza border in Israel.
As per Israeli media, the members of Nili will function independently from other Command and Control units. Those units are focused on neutralising strike cells and high-ranking terrorists. On the other hand, this particular mission is distinct which is why the Nili will have both field operatives and intelligence personnel.
The establishment of the new unit comes days after Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip killed several top commandos and operatives of Hamas. The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have already announced the death of several Nukbha commanders including Billal al-Qedra, who headed the unit’s southern Khan Younis battalion, and Ali Qadi, a company commander.
On 18th October, the IDF announced that it killed over 10 terrorists of Hamas’ Nukhba unit while targeting top terror figures in the Gaza Strip.
A day earlier, on 17th October, an Israeli airstrike in Gaza reportedly killed Ayman Nofal who was the head of Hamas’s Central Gaza Brigade. On the same day, IDF announced that around 14 family members of Hamas Chairman Ismail Haniyeh died in its airstrikes when it hit a house belonging to the Hamas leader in Gaza. It was reported that Haniyeh’s brother and nephew also died in that airstrike.
At a time when an Israeli ground offensive is looming large, Israel has issued a warning that every Hamas terrorist faces death. However, two accused masterminds who hatched the 7th October attack are at the top of Israel’s hit list. They are Hamas military commander Muhammad Deif and political leader Yahya Sinwar.
Israel has asserted that Sinwar is “a dead man walking”. Following the terrorist attack on Israel, its Defense Minister Yoav Gallant pronounced, “Hamas terrorists have two options: Be killed or surrender unconditionally. There is no third option.”
Sinwar was among the founding members of Hamas in 1987 during the First Intifada or uprising. He spent 23 years in Israeli jails where he learned Hebrew but in 2011, he was one among 1,100 Palestinian prisoners who were exchanged for the release of a French-Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Notably, Sinwar and Deif both were born in the Khan Younis refugee camp in Gaza. In 2015, both of them were added to the most wanted International terrorist list of the United States.
Contrary to Sinwar, much less is known about Israel’s number one public enemy for the past two decades Deif who is the commander of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing. He has been accused of organising suicide attacks, kidnappings, and other raids. However, there is only one known full-face photo of Deif which is at least 20 years old.
While an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza is imminent, the timing of it still remains unclear. However, Senior Israeli commanders have been making public references to such preparations amid questions about when an operation might be launched.
According to a statement issued by Israel’s military on 22nd October (Sunday), the commanding officer of Israel’s ground forces, Maj. Gen. Tamir Yedai has been meeting in recent days with soldiers training for “ground maneuvering.”
In the wake of the ground invasion, the Israeli military has been reiterating its warning for civilians in Gaza to move to the southern part of the enclave. It has warned them to leave the Northern part of the enclave or be ready to be treated as a supporter of terrorists.
