UPDATES

Gaza Academic: Israel’s targeted killing policy works

Mar 14, 2012 | Ahron Shapiro

Gaza Academic: Israel's targeted killing policy works
news_item/Drone_Missile.jpg

Israel, which has sometimes been criticised in the media for targeting terror kingpins in Gazan airstrikes, has received a validation of the policy’s effectiveness in curbing terrorism from an unlikely source: A Gazan university professor.

Mukhaimer Abu Saada, professor of political science at Al-Azhar University in Gaza City, told the AFP in an article published March 12 that Israel’s strategy has been very successful.

“The Israeli targeted assassinations against Palestinian resistance groups, especially against their leaders, is very effective,” said Mukhaimer Abu Saada, professor of political science at Al-Azhar University in Gaza City.
“It is definitely a policy that aims at paralysing these groups and stopping them from carrying out future attacks against Israel,” he told AFP.
In such groups, which tend to have a very centralised structure, taking out the top commander “definitely has a very effective and negative impact on their operational methods,” he said.
And although the groups are capable of quickly replacing assassinated leaders, it still takes some time for them to become operational again, and replacing them sometimes creates internal problems, he added.

On this issue, Abu Saada found himself in agreement with former Shin Bet director Avi Dichter, who was also interviewed in the story.
Calling targeted killings a “very effective means” of curbing terrorism, Dichter told the reporter that for a variety of reasons, Israel prefers not to resort to such means if it could be avoided, but sometimes it is the best option for derailing a planned terror attack.

Tags:

RELATED ARTICLES


Sderot, Israel. 7th Oct, 2023. Bodies of dead Israelis lie on the ground following the attacks of Hamas (Image: Ilia Yefimovich/dpa/Alamy Live News)

Israel’s Sept. 11, only worse

Oct 11, 2023 | Update
Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu (r) gets his long-awaited face-to-face meeting with US President Joe Biden in New York (Photo: Avi Ohayon, Israeli Government Press Office)

Netanyahu meets Biden, other world leaders, in New York

Sep 27, 2023 | Update
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who gave an address on Aug. 28 threatening the US and laying out the Iranian-led axis's new "unity of the arenas" doctrine. (Photo: Shutterstock, mohammad kassir)

US-Iran prisoner swap deal set to go through

Sep 12, 2023 | Update
A rally of Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party last year: Yet outside these faithful, Abbas is not only largely unpopular, but his rule over the PA has seen the Palestinian parliament dissolved, judiciary sidelined, and his party hollowed out (Photo: Shutterstock, Anas-Mohammed)

The Crisis in the PA

Aug 28, 2023 | Update
Reports are suggesting a US-Saudi agreement has been reached on the broad outlines of a package that would see Riyadh normalise its relations with Israel, perhaps early next year - though other reports dispute this. (Image: Shutterstock, OnePixelStudio)

Renewed focus on Saudi-Israeli normalisation

Aug 14, 2023 | Update
PM Netanyahu flanked by Justice Minister Yariv Levin (r), the main architect of the judicial reform package, and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant (l), known to favour compromise on the reforms, during the Knesset debate over passage of the "reasonableness" clause" on July 25 (Image: Screenshot, Kan TV).

The aftermath of passage of one judicial reform bill in Israel

Aug 1, 2023 | Update

SIGN UP FOR AIJAC EMAILS

RECENT POSTS

Section 93Z of the NSW Crimes Act 1900

AIJAC welcomes the passage of improved NSW race hate laws

Pro-Palestinian protestors waiting in the lobby for the Israeli families of those murdered or taken hostage by Hamas

AIJAC questions handling of pro-Palestinian protestors ambushing visiting families of Israeli murder victims and hostages

Masked members of the al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas (Image: Shutterstock)

A powerless Hamas is the only way this war will end

Pie Chart

News reports whitewash the crimes of Palestinian prisoners being released

(Image: Shutterstock)

The silence about Hamas’ ongoing war crimes

Section 93Z of the NSW Crimes Act 1900

AIJAC welcomes the passage of improved NSW race hate laws

Pro-Palestinian protestors waiting in the lobby for the Israeli families of those murdered or taken hostage by Hamas

AIJAC questions handling of pro-Palestinian protestors ambushing visiting families of Israeli murder victims and hostages

Masked members of the al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas (Image: Shutterstock)

A powerless Hamas is the only way this war will end

Pie Chart

News reports whitewash the crimes of Palestinian prisoners being released

(Image: Shutterstock)

The silence about Hamas’ ongoing war crimes

SORT BY TOPICS