Israel’s Leadership Decapitation Strategy SYNOPSIS COMMENTARY Short-term Gains

The assassination of his predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh, in Teheran, and more recently, the killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, has brought to the fore Israel’s strategy of targeting people whom it considers top leaders of terrorist organisations. [...] A strategy of leadership decapitation seeks to disrupt command and control in the organisation and to reduce the effectiveness of its operations. [...] The fear of being discovered by the IDF and Israeli intelligence agencies had hampered the ability of the Hamas leaders to coordinate attacks. [...] The killing of key leadership figures could also stall efforts in negotiating a ceasefire in the Israeli-Hamas war, decreasing the effectiveness of diplomacy in achieving Israel’s aims of hostage release and the return of its displaced civilians to northern Israel. [...] The killing of Hamas and Hezbollah’s leaders, especially outside the areas of conflict, casts a spotlight on the legality and morality of such a strategy.