Hamas is increasingly bracing for what it sees as a looming Israeli assassination attempt against senior figures operating outside Palestinian territory.
Senior officials in the movement told Asharq Al-Awsat that concern has been mounting over a potential strike targeting Hamas’s top echelon, particularly after the killing of senior Lebanese Hezbollah official Haitham Tabtabai.
The sources said that despite “reassurance messages” conveyed by the United States to several parties, including mediators in Türkiye, Qatar and Egypt, that last September’s Doha operation will not be repeated, the movement’s leadership “does not trust Israel”.
One source linked “expectations of a new assassination attempt with the Israeli government’s efforts to obstruct the second phase of the ceasefire agreement and its claim that the movement has no intention of advancing toward a deal”.
According to the sources, Hamas’s leadership has tightened security measures since the attempted assassination in Doha, convinced that “Israel will continue tracking the leadership and locating them through different methods, foremost of which are advanced technologies”.
A “non-Arab state”
A Hamas source said “there are assessments that the movement’s leaders may be targeted in a non-Arab state”, declining to identify it.
Since the start of the war on Gaza in October 2023, Israel has threatened and carried out overseas assassinations against Hamas leaders. It first killed Saleh al-Arouri, the movement’s deputy leader, in Beirut in January 2024, then killed the head of its political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran in July 2024.
Israel then attempted to eliminate the movement’s leadership council in the Doha operation.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later apologized to Qatar after pressure from US President Donald Trump.
US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner subsequently met Khalil al-Hayya, head of the Hamas delegation for ceasefire talks, who had been a primary target in the Doha operation.
“New security instructions”
Asharq Al-Awsat reviewed an internal directive distributed to Hamas leaders abroad regarding personal security and precautionary measures to prevent possible assassinations or at least reduce their impact.
The new instructions, which appear to have been drafted by security experts, say all fixed meetings in a single location must be canceled, and that leaders should resort to irregular meetings in rotating locations.
The instructions also require leaders to “keep mobile phones completely away from meeting sites by no less than 70 meters, and to ban the entry of any medical or electronic devices including watches into meeting venues. There must be no air conditioners, internet routers, television screens or even home intercom systems.”
The guidelines stress the need to “constantly inspect meeting venues in case miniature cameras have been planted anywhere through human agents, particularly since Israeli security services resort to installing cameras and spying devices during maintenance work inside buildings that they identify as future targets”.
The document warns leaders that “Israel relies on a chain of elements to monitor and track its targets, including human factors such as cleaning staff or others, or even individuals in the first circle around the wanted person, as well as mobile phones and other tools that can be used for surveillance such as screens, air conditioners and more”.
It adds that “switching off phones alone does not prevent tracking, especially since there is the ability to hack any device operating through Wi-Fi. Smart watches and similar devices can be used to determine the number of people in any room. Several types of missiles can also penetrate any wall or building and reach their target in a very short period”.
Gaza commander survives
Meanwhile, Israel on Wednesday attempted to assassinate a commander in the Rafah Brigade of the Qassam Brigades, the Hamas military wing, after bombing a tent sheltering his family in the Mawasi area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
The strike came hours after four Israeli soldiers were wounded in a firefight with Qassam gunmen in Rafah as the troops emerged from tunnels.
Sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the targeted figure survived. He is the intelligence chief of the Rafah Brigade.
Israel had previously said it succeeded in dismantling the Rafah Brigade completely and eliminating it, but successive operations carried out by armed cells from the brigade inside the city, which is under Israeli control, have fueled significant doubt about Israel’s narrative.
