Mossad Chief Vows to Hunt Down Hamas Members after Arouri Killed in Strike

FILE PHOTO: David Barnea, the head of the Israeli Mossad attends an honor guard ceremony for Israel's incoming military chief Herzi Halevi at Israel's Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, Israel January 16, 2023. REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: David Barnea, the head of the Israeli Mossad attends an honor guard ceremony for Israel's incoming military chief Herzi Halevi at Israel's Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, Israel January 16, 2023. REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
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Mossad Chief Vows to Hunt Down Hamas Members after Arouri Killed in Strike

FILE PHOTO: David Barnea, the head of the Israeli Mossad attends an honor guard ceremony for Israel's incoming military chief Herzi Halevi at Israel's Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, Israel January 16, 2023. REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: David Barnea, the head of the Israeli Mossad attends an honor guard ceremony for Israel's incoming military chief Herzi Halevi at Israel's Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, Israel January 16, 2023. REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo

The chief of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service has vowed that the agency would hunt down every Hamas member involved in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, no matter where they are.

His pledge came a day after the deputy head of the Palestinian group was killed in a suspected Israeli strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Israel has refused to comment on reports it carried out the killing, but the remarks by David Barnea appeared to be the strongest indication yet it was behind the blast.

He made a comparison to the aftermath of the slayings at the Munich Olympics in 1972, when Mossad agents tracked down and killed Palestinian militants involved in killing Israeli athletes.

Israel was on high alert Wednesday for an escalation with Hezbollah after the strike killed Saleh Arouri, the most senior Hamas member slain since the war in Gaza erupted nearly three months ago.

Barnea said the Mossad is “committed to settling accounts with the murderers who raided the Gaza envelope,” referring to the area of southern Israel that Hamas attacked. He vowed to pursue everyone involved, “directly or indirectly,” including “planners and envoys.”

“It’ll take time, as it took time after the Munich massacre, but we will put our hands on them wherever they are,” he said. Barnea was speaking at the funeral of former Mossad head Zvi Zamir, who died at age 98 a day earlier.

Zamir headed the intelligence agency at the time of the Munich attack, in which Palestinian militants killed 11 members of the Israeli Olympic delegation. Israel subsequently killed members of the Black September militant group who carried out the attack.



Aid to Gaza 'Facing Total Collapse', Warn 12 NGOs

 A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)
A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)
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Aid to Gaza 'Facing Total Collapse', Warn 12 NGOs

 A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)
A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)

The humanitarian aid system in Gaza is "facing total collapse" because of Israel's blockade on aid supplies since March 2, the heads of 12 major aid organizations warned Thursday, urging Israel to let them "do our jobs".

Israel has vowed to maintain its blockage on humanitarian aid to the war-ravaged territory, saying it is the only way to force Hamas to release the 58 hostages still held there.

"Every single person in Gaza is relying on humanitarian aid to survive," the chief executives of 12 NGOs, including Oxfam and Save the Children, wrote in a joint statement.

"That lifeline has been completely cut off since a blockade on all aid supplies was imposed by Israeli authorities on March 2," they said, adding that "This is one of the worst humanitarian failures of our generation."

A survey of 43 international and Palestinian aid organizations working in Gaza found that almost all have suspended or drastically cut services since a ceasefire ended on March 18, "with widespread and indiscriminate bombing making it extremely dangerous to move around", the NGOs said.

"Famine is not just a risk, but likely rapidly unfolding in almost all parts of Gaza," they said. "Survival itself is now slipping out of reach and the humanitarian system is at breaking point."

"We call on all parties to guarantee the safety of our staff and to allow the safe, unfettered access of aid into and across Gaza through all entry points, and for world leaders to oppose further restrictions."

Israel's renewed assault has killed at least 1,691 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, bringing the overall toll since the war erupted to 51,065, most of them civilians.

Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.