Inside Israel’s brutal assassination toolkit from robot machine guns & ‘ninja’ bladed-missiles to poison syringes
ISRAEL has one of the most impressive assassination arsenals in the world and can wipe out its enemies with the most precise strikes.
Its security forces have robot machine guns, an incredible war chest of high-tech missiles, car bombs and poison syringes at their disposal.
On Tuesday one such precision strike killed a Hamas leader while he slept, as a missile was fired through his hotel window in Iran’s capital.
The Sun revealed yesterday that it was a rocket fired from a drone which detonated inside his room.
This morning Israel also said that a targeted strike on Khan Younis in southern Gaza last month eliminated one of their top three Hamas targets, military boss Mohammed Deif.
Particularly in recent years, Israeli spies and military forces have taken out some of the country’s fiercest enemies with its formidable weaponry.
High-ranking members of Iranian-backed terror proxy groups like Hamas in Gaza or Hezbollah in Lebanon have long been featured on Israeli kill lists.
ROBOT-POWERED MACHINE GUN
In 2022, as tensions were raging between Israel and Palestine in the occupied West Bank, Netanyahu’s army developed a new weapon.
A machine gun powered by artificial intelligence.
The twin gun turrets were placed on top of a guard tower overlooking a refugee camp in the West Bank.
One of the men who lived there, 19-year-old Kamal Abu Hishesh, told AP: “It fires by itself without any difficulty from the soldier.
“It is very fast, even faster than the soldiers.
“The tear gas bombs that it fires can reach the end of the camp and all the way up there. I have seen it several times.”
The Israeli army said at the time that the autonomous guns are not used with live rounds, but can fire tear gas, stun grenades and sponge-covered bullets.
NINJA HELLFIRE MISSILES & DRONES
Israel’s army is home to a formidable array of rockets and drone technology, including anti-cruise, anti-ship and even nuclear capable missiles.
It is one of the most technologically advanced missile arsenals in the Middle East, according to the Centre for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS).
The “Ninja” bladed missile, or AGM-114 Hellfire, is a highly accurate precision rocket designed to hit a target without causing widespread destruction around the area.
Israel is believed to have armed drones with the missiles before, using them for pinpoint assassination bids in Gaza.
Although short-range, they are incredibly precise.
Israel also has in its arsenal several different types of Jericho ballistic missiles, a powerful nuclear capable weapon.
The first series was a short-range ballistic rocket, the second with medium range and the third a long-range, solid-fuelled missile.
Israeli forces also possess Harpoon subsonic anti-ship cruise missiles, with air, ship and submarine-launched versions.
The country’s Lora, Gabriel and Delilah missiles are also capable of targeting precise targets via sea or ground launches.
A more recent addition to the Israeli war chest is the Popeye, an air-to-surface missile with pinpoint accuracy.
It also has a long-range sister which is thought to be nuclear capable.
Israel has an impressive array of F-35 fighter jets which it can use to unleash missiles on its enemies across the region.
But it also makes use of UAVs, or drones, as with the precise strike on Haniyeh this week.
POISON SYRINGES AND CAR BOMBS
Israel’s intelligence agency, Mossad, works with Aman – the country’s military intelligence unit – and Shin Bet, it’s internal security body.
With 7,000 staff, its believed to be one of the world’s biggest spy agencies.
It covers intelligence gathering, covert operations, counter-terrorism and is thought to have carried out countless assassination plots across the world.
Outside of traditional warfare missiles or gunfire the agency is believed to have used car bombs and poison to take out its enemies.
In 2010, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh – one of the founders of Hamas’ military wing – was assassinated in his hotel room in Dubai.
A team of several dozen agents flew to Dubai on false passports, wearing wigs, outfits and false moustaches to disguise themselves as tourists and tennis players.
CCTV footage of the some 29 suspects who tracked him showed two of them following him through the hotel to observe his room number and the one opposite.
The suspected Mossad agents allegedly used a high-tech ultrasound tool to inject poison into Mabhouh’s neck without even breaking the skin.
He was dead by 9pm that evening.
Dubai police later said: “Our investigations reveal that Mossad is involved in the murder of al-Mabhouh … It is 99% if not 100% that Mossad is standing behind the murder”, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Imad Fayez Mughniyeh, a founding member and leader of Hezbollah, was killed in 2008 by a car bomb blast in Damascus, Syria.
He was at an event making the anniversary of the Iranian revolution and was killed walking back to his car as an explosive hidden inside a tyre detonated next to him.
Israel officially denied involvement, but he had reportedly been the focus of assassination attempts by Mossad since the 1990s.
Days after his death the Jerusalem Post reported that Syrian sources claimed different Arab countries conspired with Mossad to have the Hezbollah boss taken out
In 2010 Iranian nuclear scientist Masoud Masoud Alimohammadi was killed by a booby-trapped motorbike parked near his car which exploded while he was leaving for work.
Majid Shahriari, a professor at Iran’s Shahid Beheshti University was killed a year later after an assassin attached a car bomb and detonated it from a distance.
The following year nuke expert Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan was assassinated with a “magnetised explosive” attached to the side of his car.