Will killing of Hamas cadre set off chain of assassinations?
Several reports suggest that Israel’s assassination of Hamed al-Khudari, a Hamas cadre accused of funneling funds to the movement, could be the first in a chain of assassinations of Hamas leaders.
The Gaza Strip witnessed an Israeli-Palestinian military escalation May 3-5 that led to the killing of four Israelis and 31 Palestinians, including Hamas cadre Hamed al-Khudari and various Islamic Jihad figures, as Israel raided 350 targets in Gaza and Palestinian factions fired 690 rockets at Israeli towns.
This escalation came after the Israeli army killed three Palestinians in eastern Gaza on May 3. In response, a Palestinian sniper shot two Israeli soldiers on the same day, causing them moderate injuries.
On May 5, the Israeli air force assassinated Khudari, 34, when it bombed his car near the Sidra area in central Gaza City.
Khudari's killing is the first such Israeli assassination since the end of the Gaza war in August 2014. This raises questions about what led Israel to return to the assassination policy and opt for Khudari in particular. In previous decades, Israeli intelligence carried out assassinations of senior Palestinian leaders both inside and outside the Palestinian territories.
