Israel and state-sponsored terrorism

{{Main|1950–51 Baghdad bombings}}

1950–1951 Baghdad bombings refers to a series of bombings of Jewish targets in Baghdad, Iraq, between April 1950 and June 1951. There is a dispute around the true identity and objective of the offenders behind the bombings, and this issue remains unresolved.

Two activists in the Iraqi Zionist underground were found guilty by an Iraqi court for a number of the bombings, and were sentenced to death. Another was sentenced to life imprisonment and seventeen more were given long prison sentences.Morris & Black, 1992, [https://books.google.com/books?id=FkyMsycbemEC&dq=shalom+salha+baghdad&pg=PA91 p. 91] The allegations against Israeli agents had "wide consensus" amongst Iraqi Jews in Israel.{{citation|title=The Jewish Exodus from Iraq 1948-1951|first=Samuel|last=Klausner|journal=Contemporary Jewry|volume=19|issue=1|year=1998|pages=180–185|jstor=23455343|quote=Most of the 120,000 Iraqi Jews, transported to Israel through Operation Ezra and Nemehiah in 1950-1, believed they had been stampeded into fleeing by the Israeli Mossad. Many still believe that when registration for emigration slowed, members of the Zionist underground tossed hand grenades into Jewish institutions. This suspicion has contributed to the alienation of Iraqi immigrants from successive Labor governments.|ref=none|doi=10.1007/BF02963432}} Many of the Iraqi Jews in Israel who lived in poor conditions blamed their ills and misfortunes on the Israeli Zionist emissaries or Iraqi Zionist underground movement.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FkyMsycbemEC&pg=PA92 | title=Israel's Secret Wars: A History of Israel's Intelligence Services | publisher=Grove Press |author1=Ian Black |author2=Benny Morris | year=1991 | pages=92| isbn=9780802132864 }} The theory that "certain Jews" carried out the attacks "in order to focus the attention of the Israel Government on the plight of the Jews" was viewed as "more plausible than most" by the British Foreign Office.British Embassy in Baghdad, FO371, EQ1571, Baghdad to FO, 27 June 1951, "one theory which is more plausible than most is that certain Jews have endeavoured, by throwing bombs at certain buildings, to focus the attention of the Israel Government on the plight of the Jews in Iraq so that they would keep the airlift moving quickly, and, possibly as a second object, to induce those well-to-do Jews who had decided to remain in Iraq to change their mind and emigrate to Israel."{{cite book|url=http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=703367 |title=Now it can be told |publisher=Haaretz |author=Tom Segev |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080504154232/http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=703367 |archive-date=2008-05-04 }} Telegrams between the Mossad agents in Baghdad and their superiors in Tel Aviv give the impression that neither group knew who was responsible for the attack.

Israel has consistently denied involvement in the bombings.{{Cite web|url=http://www.babylonjewry.org.il/new/english/whats.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090314053000/http://www.babylonjewry.org.il/new/english/whats.htm|url-status=dead|title=To Baghdad and Back|archive-date=March 14, 2009}}

Image:Pinhas Lavon.jpg Pinhas Lavon]]

{{Main|Lavon Affair}}

The 'Lavon Affair' was an unsuccessful Israeli covert operation, code named 'Operation Susannah', conducted in Egypt in the Summer of 1954. As part of the false flag operation,{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dULlTAe_NwEC&q=%22false+flag%22+Israel+Egypt&pg=PA46 |title=Global terrorism |author=James M. Lutz |author2=Brenda J. Lutz |date=2004 |isbn=0-415-70051-5 |page=46 |publisher=Psychology Press |access-date=7 June 2011}} a group of Egyptian Jews were recruited by Israeli military intelligence to plant bombs inside Egyptian, American and British-owned civilian targets, cinemas, libraries and American educational centers. The attacks were to be blamed on the Muslim Brotherhood, Egyptian Communists, "unspecified malcontents" or "local nationalists" with the aim of creating a climate of sufficient violence and instability to induce the British government to maintain its occupying troops in Egypt's Suez Canal zone.{{cite book |author=S. Teveth |title=Ben-Gurion's spy: the story of the political scandal that shaped modern Israel |publisher=Columbia University Press |date=1996 |isbn=978-0-231-10464-7 |page=81}} The explosions were timed to happen several hours after closing time, and did not cause any fatalities. However, an operative died when a bomb he was taking to a movie theater ignited prematurely in his pocket. In addition, two operatives committed suicide after being captured and two more operatives who were tried, convicted and executed by Egypt.

The operation ultimately became known as the 'Lavon Affair'. Following this operation the Israeli defense minister Pinhas Lavon was forced to resign. Even though Israel denied any involvement in the operation for 51 years, the surviving members were honored by Israeli President Moshe Katzav in 2005.{{cite web

|url = http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3065838,00.html

|title = Israel honors 9 Egyptian spies

|agency = Reuters

|date = 30 March 2005

|publisher = Ynetnews

|access-date = 1 October 2015

|archive-date = 27 December 2013

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131227083535/http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3065838,00.html

|url-status = live

}} The operation is cited as a case study in critical terrorism studies.{{cite journal |first=Khaled |last=Al-Kassimi |editor-first=Greg |editor-last=Simons |date=2019 |title=Critical terrorism studies (CTS): (State) (sponsored) terrorism identified in the (militarized) pedagogy of (U.S.) law enforcement agencies |journal=Cogent Social Sciences |volume=5 |issue=1 |doi=10.1080/23311886.2019.1586813|s2cid=150995215 |doi-access=free }}

On 12 December, the Israeli Air Force intercepted a Syrian civilian plane and forced it to land at Lod AirportPreviously Lydda airport, later Ben Gurion Airport. where the passengers were held for two days.Middle East International No 268, 7 February 1986, Publishers Lord Mayhew, Dennis Walters. Michael Jansen p. 5 The Syrian Airways (Compagnie Arienne Syrienne) Dakota plane was flying from Damascus to Cairo with five passengers and five crew members, when two Israeli fighter jets ordered it to divert course and land, by (according to a Syrian statement) threatening to fire upon it. Detained passengers included Cherif Kotmeh of the Syrian Embassy in Cairo, two other Syrian nationals, and an Egyptian lawyer's wife. These foreign nationals were later taken to their respective borders and released.{{Cite web |date=1954-12-15 |title=Syrian Plane, All Passengers, Released by Israel; Leaves for Cairo |url=https://www.jta.org/archive/syrian-plane-all-passengers-released-by-israel-leaves-for-cairo |access-date=2024-10-09 |work=Jewish Telegraphic Agency}} An American businessman was released immediately.{{Cite news |last= |first= |date=1954-12-13 |title=Syrian Airliner Seized by Israel |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1954/12/13/84445401.html |access-date=2024-10-09 |work=The New York Times |pages=7 |issn=0362-4331}}

Israeli authorities claimed that the aircraft crossed into Israeli territory near Acre before it was forced down, while Syrian official statements claimed the plane had been flying over the high seas.{{Citation |last=Republic |first=Syrian Arab |title=Letter dated 14 December 1954 from the Permanent Representative of Syria to the United Nations, addressed to the President of the Security Council |date=1954-12-14 |url=https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/629595 |access-date=2024-10-09}} At the United Nations, Syrian delegate Ahmed Shukairi denounced “a shocking act of aggression.”{{Cite news |date=1954-12-14 |title=Israel Releases Captain of Syrian Airplane; Four Still Detained |url=https://www.jta.org/archive/israel-releases-captain-of-syrian-airplane-four-still-detained |access-date=2024-10-09 |work=Jewish Telegraphic Agency}} Reporting to the Knesset's Foreign Affairs Defense Committee the following week, Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett stated that the plane had not been in Israeli airspace, but merely in an area managed by Lod's air traffic controllers, and there was "no precedent" for "requiring a plane to land" in such circumstances.{{Cite book |last=Sharett |first=Moshe |title=My Struggle for Peace, Volume 1 (1953–1954): The Diary of Moshe Sharett, 1953–1956 |date=2019-03-19 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-03736-7}} The Syrian government immediately alleged that the detention was connected to the detention of five Israeli soldiers involved in a December 8 border confrontation.

Livia Rokach,{{Cite book |last=Rokach |first=Livia |title=Israel's Sacred Terrorism |date=1980 |publisher=Association of Arab-American University Graduates |location=Belmont, MA}} Kameel Nasr,{{Cite book |last=Nasr |first=Kameel B. |title=Arab and Israeli Terrorism: The Causes and Effects of Political Violence, 1936-1993 |date=1997 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-0280-9}} Noam Chomsky,{{Cite book |last=Chomsky |first=Noam |title=Pirates and Emperors, Old and New: International Terrorism in the Real World |date=2015-03-23 |publisher=Haymarket Books |isbn=978-1-60846-442-5 |pages=86}} and Donald Neff{{Cite news |last=Neff |first=Donald |date=1994-11-09 |title=Israel Was First Nation to Skyjack A Civilian Airliner |url=https://www.wrmea.org/1994-november-december/israel-was-first-nation-to-skyjack-a-civilian-airliner.html |access-date=2024-10-09 |work=WRMEA}} have each described the incident as state-sponsored hijacking or terrorism. Historian of airline hijacking Philip Baum concluded instead that it was far from terrorism.{{Cite book |last=Baum |first=Philip |title=Violence in the Skies: A History of Aircraft Hijacking and Bombing |date=2016-03-10 |publisher=Summersdale |isbn=978-1-78372-790-2 |pages=54 |quote=This statement [(Noam Chomsky's claim that it was 'the first airplane hijacking in the Middle East')] is far fetched; a naive error of judgement it may have been, calculated terrorist attack it was not.}} Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett's diary states that Chief of Staff Moshe Dayan intended "to get hostages in order to obtain the release of our soldiers in Damascus."{{Cite book |last=Chomsky |first=Noam |title=Pirates and Emperors, Old and New: International Terrorism in the Real World |date=2015-03-23 |publisher=Haymarket Books |isbn=978-1-60846-442-5 |pages=86}} Sharett wrote to Defense Minister Lavon that, "our action was without precedent in the history of international practice. What shocks and worries me is the narrow-mindedness and the short-sightedness of our military leaders. They seem to presume that the state of Israel may—or even must—behave in the realm of international relations according to the laws of the jungle."{{Cite book |last=Sharett |first=Moshe |title=My Struggle for Peace, Volume 1 (1953–1954): The Diary of Moshe Sharett, 1953–1956 |date=2019-03-19 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-03736-7}}"It must be clear to you that we had no justification whatsoever to seize the plane, and that once forced down we should have immediately released it and not held the passengers under interrogation for 48 hours. I have no reason to doubt the truth of the factual affirmation of the U.S. State Department that our action was without precedent in the history of international practice. ..... What shocks and worries me is the narrow-mindedness and the shortsightedness of our military leaders. They seem to presume that the State of Israel may or even must-behave in the realm of international relations according to the laws of the jungle. (22 December 1954, 607)" {{Cite book |last=Rokach |first=Livia |title=Israel's Sacred Terrorism |date=1980 |publisher=Association of Arab-American University Graduates |location=Belmont, MA}}

Since the 1970s, Israel has provided military support to a range of dictatorial regimes in South America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia.{{sfn|Pieterse|1984|p=58-59}} Penny Lernoux called it a "Who's Who" of dictators.{{sfn|Pieterse|1984|p=58-59}} Between 1970 and 1980, Israel accounted for 80% of military imports in El Salvador leading up to the Salvadoran Civil War.{{sfn|Pieterse|1984|p=58-59}} Israel also provided 100 advisors, pilots for combat missions, and a computer system to monitor resistance activity in the country.{{sfn|Pieterse|1984|p=58-59}} In Guatemala, Israel was the sole arms supplier during the terror that followed the election of General Lucas García in 1978, events that included the Panzós massacre.{{sfn|Pieterse|1984|p=64}} In Indonesia, as reported by Noam Chomsky, Israel served as a proxy for the United States, providing aircraft used to massacre the Timorese in the late 1970s.{{sfn|Pieterse|1984|p=58-59}}

{{Main|Front for the Liberation of Lebanon from Foreigners}}

After the 1979 massacre of an Israeli family at Nahariya by Palestine Liberation Front militants, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Rafael Eitan instructed Israeli General Avigdor Ben-Gal to "Kill them all," meaning the Palestine Liberation Organization and those connected to it.{{cite book|title=Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel's Targeted Assassinations|last=Bergman|first=Ronen|date=2018|publisher=Random House|isbn=978-1400069712|pages=234–247}} With Eitan's approval, Ben-Gal charged Meir Dagan with running the operations. The operations, approved by the Chief of Staff, were kept secret from the IDF's General Staff and many other members of the Israeli government. David Agmon, at the time head of Israel's northern command, was one of the few people who was briefed on its operations. Lebanese operatives on the ground from the Maronite, Shiite and Druze communities were recruited. The aim of the series of operations was to "cause chaos among the Palestinians and Syrians in Lebanon, without leaving an Israeli fingerprint, to give them the feeling that they were constantly under attack and to instill them with a sense of insecurity."

Beginning in July 1981, with a bomb attack on the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) offices at Fakhani Road in West Beirut,{{cite magazine|date=28 September 1981|title=Sudden Death: Bombings rock P.L.O. offices|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,953128,00.html#ixzz1Gs8wqZUY|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101015140515/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,953128,00.html#ixzz1Gs8wqZUY|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 15, 2010|magazine=TIME Magazine}} these attacks were claimed by a group called the Front for the Liberation of Lebanon from Foreigners. The FLLF was itself a front for Israeli agents, and it killed hundreds of people between 1979 and 1983.{{cite magazine|last=Bergman|first=Ronen|date=23 January 2018|title=How Arafat Eluded Israel's Assassination Machine|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/magazine/how-arafat-eluded-israels-assassination-machine.html|magazine=New York Times Magazine|access-date=2 October 2019|archive-date=7 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180507125757/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/magazine/how-arafat-eluded-israels-assassination-machine.html|url-status=live}}National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START). (2018). Global Terrorism Database [Data file]. Retrieved from https://www.start.umd.edu/gtd {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160706083744/https://www.start.umd.edu/gtd |date=2016-07-06 }}

By September 1981, the Front's operations consisted of car bombs exploding regularly in the Palestinian neighborhoods of Beirut and other Lebanese cities. Particularly deadly attacks include an October 1, 1981 attack in Beirut that killed 83 and a November 29, 1981 attack in Aleppo that killed 90. FLLF operations came to a sudden halt just prior to the June 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, only to be resumed the following year: first a 28 January 1983 strike on a PLO headquarters at Chtaura in the Syrian-controlled Beqaa Valley, killing 35, coupled by a second on 3 February at West Beirut that devastated the Palestine Research Center offices and left 20 people dead, including the wife of Sabri Jiryis.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=px1jDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT98|title=The Palestine Nakba: Decolonising History, Narrating the Subaltern, Reclaiming Memory|last=Masalha|first=Nur|date=2012|publisher=Zed Books Ltd.|isbn=9781848139732|location=London|page=144|access-date=2019-10-02|archive-date=2023-10-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231011074304/https://books.google.com/books?id=px1jDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT98#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}.Lee O'Brien, Campaign of Terror: Car Bombing in Lebanon, MERIP Reports 118 (October 1983), p. 26.Middle East Record (MER), 2 October 1982, pp. 6-8. A third bombing occurred on Syrian-controlled Baalbek on 7 August 1983, which killed about 30 people and injured nearly 40,{{cite book|title=Civil War in Lebanon, 1975-92|last=O'Ballance|first=Edgar|date=1998|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=0-333-72975-7|location=London|page=126}} followed by another on 5 December 1983 at the Chyah quarter of the Southern suburbs of Beirut that claimed the lives of 12 people and maimed over 80.{{cite book|title=Civil War in Lebanon, 1975-92|last=O'Ballance|first=Edgar|date=1998|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=0-333-72975-7|location=London|page=134}}

The FLLF disbanded after 1983.

File:Abdolmalek Rigi in Islamic Revolutionary Court.jpg, who according to Iranian officials, admitted to his extensive contacts with the Israeli Mossad.{{Cite web|first=John|last=Cherian|url=https://frontline.thehindu.com/static/html/fl2706/stories/20100326270605200.htm|title= Iran: Arrest of a terrorist|volume=27|issue=6|date=2010-03-13|access-date=2019-06-28|publisher=Frontline}}]]

{{see also|Iran–Israel proxy conflict|Assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists}}

Israel and Iran are belligerent enemies. Though they have never been at war, both nations make efforts to undermine the other's influence in the region through various means: diplomatic, economic, and military. This includes the use of (often armed) proxies, which facilitate indirect conflict between the powers, and in the case of Iranian proxies Hamas and Hezbollah, outright war. The Israeli government supports various armed groups in its conflict with Iranian government.International Journal of Middle East Studies, 19, 1987, p. 261{{which?|date=October 2024}}

Four Iranian nuclear scientists—Masoud Alimohammadi, Majid Shahriari, Darioush Rezaeinejad and Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan—were assassinated between 2010 and 2012. Another scientist, Fereydoon Abbasi, was wounded in an attempted murder.{{cite news|last1=Hasan|first1=Mehdi|title=Iran's nuclear scientists are not being assassinated. They are being murdered|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jan/16/iran-scientists-state-sponsored-murder|date=12 January 2012|access-date=7 February 2016|newspaper=The Guardian|archive-date=17 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160117224151/http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jan/16/iran-scientists-state-sponsored-murder|url-status=live}}{{cite news|last1=Meikle|first1=James|title=Iran: timeline of attacks|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jan/11/secret-war-iran-timeline-attacks|date=12 January 2012|access-date=7 February 2016|newspaper=The Guardian|archive-date=12 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160312124918/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jan/11/secret-war-iran-timeline-attacks|url-status=live}} Two of the killings were carried out with magnetic bombs attached to the targets' cars; Darioush Rezaeinejad was shot dead, and Masoud Alimohammadi was killed in a motorcycle-bomb explosion.{{cite news|last1=Vick|first1=Karl|last2=Klein|first2=Aaron J.|title=Who Assassinated an Iranian Nuclear Scientist? Israel Isn't Telling|url=http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2104372,00.html|date=13 January 2012|access-date=14 February 2016|work=Time|archive-date=24 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160224221222/http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2104372,00.html|url-status=live}} According to an NBC article, two anonymous U.S. officials stated that the Obama administration knew about the assassination campaign but had "no direct involvement, while Mohammad Javad Larijani blamed the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK).{{cite web |title=Israel teams with terror group to kill Iran's nuclear scientists, U.S. officials tell NBC News |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israel-teams-terror-group-kill-irans-nuclear-scientists-u-s-flna241673 |date=9 February 2012 |publisher=NBC News |access-date=5 January 2023 |archive-date=29 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129020537/http://rockcenter.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/02/08/10354553-israel-teams-with-terror-group-to-kill-irans-nuclear-scientists-us-officials-tell-nbc-news |url-status=live }}{{Cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/02/israel-and-proxy-terrorism/252971/|title=Israel and Proxy Terrorism|first=Robert|last=Wright|date=February 13, 2012|website=The Atlantic|access-date=June 2, 2018|archive-date=May 8, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190508150025/https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/02/israel-and-proxy-terrorism/252971/|url-status=live}}

According to a New York Times article, the Israeli government, with knowledge and support from the US government, assassinated Fakhrizadeh on 27 November 2020 in a road ambush in Absard using an innovative autonomous satellite-operated gun.New York Times, 18 Sep. 2021 [https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/18/world/middleeast/iran-nuclear-fakhrizadeh-assassination-israel.html?referringSource=articleShare"The Scientist and the A.I.-Assisted, Remote-Control Killing Machine: Israeli Agents Had Wanted to Kill Iran’s Top Nuclear Scientist for Years. Then They Came up with a Way to Do It with No Operatives Present."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220212013405/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/18/world/middleeast/iran-nuclear-fakhrizadeh-assassination-israel.html?referringSource=articleShare |date=2022-02-12 }}

According to a 2012 report in Foreign Policy, Mossad agents disguised as Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officers also recruited members of Jundallah—"a Pakistan-based Sunni terrorist organization ... responsible for assassinating Iranian government officials and killing Iranian women and children"—to carry out "false flag" operations against Iran, straining Israel's relations with the United States.{{cite web|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/01/13/false_flag|title=False Flag|author-link=Mark Perry (author)|last=Perry|first=Mark|work=Foreign Policy|date=2012-01-13|access-date=2016-10-30|archive-date=2014-10-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141023122109/http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/01/13/false_flag|url-status=dead}}{{Cite news|url=http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israeli-mossad-agents-posed-as-cia-spies-to-recruit-terrorists-to-fight-against-iran-1.407224|title='Israeli Mossad agents posed as CIA spies to recruit terrorists to fight against Iran' - Haaretz.com|date=2017-06-25|access-date=2017-07-10|url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170625053323/http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israeli-mossad-agents-posed-as-cia-spies-to-recruit-terrorists-to-fight-against-iran-1.407224|archive-date=2017-06-25|newspaper=Haaretz|last1=Ravid|first1=Barak}}

Israel provided funding,{{Cite web |date=2017-06-19 |title=Israel provides steady flow of cash, aid to Syri |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-provides-steady-flow-of-cash-aid-to-syrian-rebels-report/ |website=www.timesofisrael.com}} weapons and medical assistance to wounded Syrian rebels{{cite news | url=http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.630359 | title=UN Reveals Israeli Links With Syrian Rebels | date=7 December 2014 | agency=HAARETZ | access-date=27 February 2016 | archive-date=3 January 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180103210503/https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.630359 | url-status=live }} crossing the border of "the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights"; most of this assistance has gone to Al-Nusra Front (now Tahrir al-Sham).{{cite web|last=Trofimov|first=Yaroslav|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/al-qaeda-a-lesser-evil-syria-war-pulls-u-s-israel-apart-1426169708|title=Al Qaeda a Lesser Evil? Syria War Pulls U.S., Israel Apart|work=The Wall Street Journal|date=2015-03-12|access-date=2016-11-19|archive-date=2018-06-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180629095743/https://www.wsj.com/articles/al-qaeda-a-lesser-evil-syria-war-pulls-u-s-israel-apart-1426169708|url-status=live}} Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi notes that "this[,] however[,] does not prove that it is a matter of Israeli policy to provide treatment for Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham members."{{cite web|author-link=Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi|last=Al-Tamimi|first=Aymenn Jawad|url=http://www.rubincenter.org/2017/07/israels-relations-with-the-syrian-rebels-an-assessment/|title=Israel's Relations with the Syrian Rebels: An Assessment|work=Middle East Review of International Affairs|date=2017-07-03|access-date=2017-07-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170709103919/http://www.rubincenter.org/2017/07/israels-relations-with-the-syrian-rebels-an-assessment/|archive-date=2017-07-09|url-status=dead}} Israeli officials stated that they provide humanitarian aid to wounded combatants and civilians regardless of their identity.{{cite news | url=http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/New-UN-report-reveals-collaboration-between-Israel-and-Syrian-rebels-383926 | title=New UN report reveals collaboration between Israel and Syrian rebels | date=12 July 2014 | agency=THE JERUSALEM POST | access-date=27 February 2016 | author=MAYA SHWAYDER | archive-date=5 April 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180405212217/http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/New-UN-report-reveals-collaboration-between-Israel-and-Syrian-rebels-383926 | url-status=live }}{{cite news | url=http://www.ibtimes.co.in/un-report-israel-regular-contact-syrian-rebels-including-isis-616404 | title=UN Report: Israel in Regular Contact with Syrian Rebels including ISIS | date=December 7, 2014 | agency=International Business Times | access-date=27 February 2016 | author=Johnlee Varghese | archive-date=16 May 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180516074147/https://www.ibtimes.co.in/un-report-israel-regular-contact-syrian-rebels-including-isis-616404 | url-status=live }} According to a March 2015 report in The Wall Street Journal, two-thirds of "the Syrians treated in Israel" were military-age men. One UNDOF report stated that two boxes of unspecified content were transferred from Israel to Syrian rebels and that the soldiers of IDF met with Syrian rebels in the east of the border. Israel is believed to share intelligence with the rebels.{{cite web|last=Berman|first=Lazar|url=https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/bibi-the-strategist/|title=Bibi the Strategist|work=Commentary|date=2016-08-16|access-date=2016-10-30|archive-date=2016-10-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161030142946/https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/bibi-the-strategist/|url-status=live}} "Former head of Israel's military intelligence Amos Yadlin explained Israel's rationale: "There is no doubt that Hezbollah and Iran are the major threat to Israel, much more than the radical Sunni Islamists, who are also an enemy."

IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot has acknowledged that Israel has provided weapons to rebel groups in Syria.{{Cite web|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-chief-acknowledges-long-claimed-weapons-supply-to-syrian-rebels/|title=IDF chief finally acknowledges that Israel supplied weapons to Syrian rebels|first=Judah Ari|last=Gross|website=www.timesofisrael.com|access-date=2019-05-06|archive-date=2019-05-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190522122353/http://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-chief-acknowledges-long-claimed-weapons-supply-to-syrian-rebels/|url-status=live}}

In the aftermath of the 2008–2009 war in Gaza, international law scholar Richard A. Falk opined that the scope of Israeli attacks were an extension of the Dahiya doctrine named after the deliberately excessive air bombardment of the Dahiya quarter of South Beirut during the 2006 Lebanon War at the expense of civilian infrastructure.{{cite web |url=https://richardfalk.org/2011/01/07/israel%E2%80%99s-israeli-violence-against-separation-wall-protests-along-the-road-of-state-terrorism/ |author=Falk, Richard |author-link=Richard A. Falk |date=2011 |title=Israel's Violence Against Separation Wall Protests: Along the Road of State Terrorism |access-date=2023-11-13 |archive-date=2023-11-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231115155437/https://richardfalk.org/2011/01/07/israel%E2%80%99s-israeli-violence-against-separation-wall-protests-along-the-road-of-state-terrorism/ |url-status=live }}

Likewise, in the 2008–09 conflict, Falk observed how the Goldstone Report concluded that the Israeli strategy was "designed to punish, humiliate and terrorize a civilian population". Falk stated: "The civilian infrastructure of adversaries such as Hamas or Hezbollah are treated as permissible military targets, which is not only an overt violation of the most elementary norms of the law of war and of universal morality, but an avowal of a doctrine of violence that needs to be called by its proper name: state terrorism."

{{main|2024 Lebanon pager explosions}}

On 17 and 18 September 2024, thousands of handheld pagers and hundreds of walkie-talkies intended for use by Hezbollah exploded simultaneously across Lebanon and Syria in an Israeli attack.

• {{Cite web |last=Kent |first=Lauren |date=17 September 2024 |title=Israel behind deadly pager explosions that targeted Hezbollah and injured thousands in Lebanon |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/17/middleeast/lebanon-hezbollah-pagers-explosions-intl/index.html |access-date=17 September 2024 |website=CNN |language=en |archive-date=19 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240919060924/https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/17/middleeast/lebanon-hezbollah-pagers-explosions-intl/index.html |url-status=live }}
• {{Cite web|date=18 September 2024|title=Who made the exploding pagers? A messy global trail emerges behind deadly Lebanon blasts|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/taiwan-firm-denies-making-pagers-used-lebanon-explosions-rcna171594|access-date=18 September 2024|website=NBC News|first1=Mithil|last1=Aggarwal|first2=Peter|last2=Guo|first3=Dan|last3=De Luce|first4=Andrea|last4=Mitchell|language=en|archive-date=20 September 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240920183930/https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/taiwan-firm-denies-making-pagers-used-lebanon-explosions-rcna171594|url-status=live}}
• {{cite news |last1=Frenkel |first1=Sheera |last2=Bergman |first2=Ronen |last3=Saad |first3=Hwaida |author3-link=Hwaida Saad |date=18 September 2024 |title=How Israel Built a Modern-Day Trojan Horse: Exploding Pagers |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/18/world/middleeast/israel-exploding-pagers-hezbollah.html |access-date=19 September 2024 |work=The New York Times |quote=Even before Mr. Nasrallah decided to expand pager usage, Israel had put into motion a plan to establish a shell company that would pose as an international pager producer. By all appearances, B.A.C. Consulting was a Hungary-based company that was under contract to produce the devices on behalf of a Taiwanese company, Gold Apollo. In fact, it was part of an Israeli front, according to three intelligence officers briefed on the operation. They said at least two other shell companies were created as well to mask the real identities of the people creating the pagers: Israeli intelligence officers.| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240920004904/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/18/world/middleeast/israel-exploding-pagers-hezbollah.html| archive-date= 20 September 2024| url-status=live}} The attack killed at least 42 people, including at least 12 civilians, and wounded more than 3,000.
• {{Cite news |last=Christou |first=William |date=20 September 2024 |title='We are isolated, tired, scared': pager attack leaves Lebanon in shock |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/20/we-are-isolated-tired-scared-pager-attack-leaves-lebanon-in-shock |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240923020749/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/20/we-are-isolated-tired-scared-pager-attack-leaves-lebanon-in-shock |archive-date=23 September 2024 |access-date=22 September 2024 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}
• {{cite news |author1=David Brennan |author2=Nadine El-Bawab |date=18 September 2024 |title=20 more dead, 450 injured as new round of explosions rocks Lebanon: Health officials |url=https://abcnews.go.com/International/hezbollah-vows-reckoning-after-thousands-lebanon-injured-exploding/story?id=113798347 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240920011014/https://abcnews.go.com/International/hezbollah-vows-reckoning-after-thousands-lebanon-injured-exploding/story?id=113798347 |archive-date=20 September 2024 |access-date=20 September 2024 |website=ABC News}}
• {{cite news |author=Hijazi, S. |date=20 September 2024 |title=Nasrallah: We suffered a 'hard blow'... but Israel failed |url=https://today.lorientlejour.com/article/1427756/nasrallah-we-suffered-a-hard-blow-but-israel-failed.html |access-date=20 September 2024 |website=L'Orient-Le Jour |language=en}}

Belgian deputy prime minister Petra De Sutter called the incident a "terror attack."{{Cite news |last1=Oliphant |first1=Roland |last2=Confino |first2=Jotam |date=2024-09-18 |title=Israel declares new phase of war after walkie-talkie bomb attacks |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/09/18/israel-declares-new-phase-of-war-after-walkie-talkie-bombs/ |access-date=2024-09-19 |work=The Daily Telegraph |language=en-GB |issn=0307-1235}} The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention condemned the incident as "terrorist attacks against Lebanese people".{{Cite tweet |number=1836602596611571805 |user=LemkinInstitute |title=The @LemkinInstitute condemns Israel's terrorist attacks against Lebanese people in the past two days. |author=Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention |date=19 September 2024 |access-date=19 September 2024}} In official statements, the attack was also labelled terrorism by Hamas and by Iran.{{Cite web |last=Najjar |first=Farah |title=Nine killed, 2,750 wounded in Hezbollah pager blasts across Lebanon |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/9/17/israels-war-on-gaza-live-38-killed-as-israel-risks-becoming-pariah |access-date=17 September 2024 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en}} Leon Panetta, the former-CIA director, stated, "I don't think there's any question it's a form of terrorism."{{cite web |last1=Magid |first1=Jacob |title=Former CIA chief Panetta calls mass detonation of Hezbollah pagers 'a form of terrorism' |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/former-cia-chief-panetta-calls-mass-detonation-of-hezbollah-pagers-a-form-of-terrorism/ |website=The Times of Israel |access-date=6 October 2024}} European Union foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell condemned the attack, saying they were aimed "to spread terror in Lebanon".

• {{Cite web |date=18 September 2024 |title=EU foreign affairs chief decries civilian casualties in Lebanon pager attacks |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/9/18/israels-war-on-gaza-live-thousands-injured-in-lebanon-pager-explosions?update=3186546 |website=Al Jazeera |access-date=18 September 2024 |archive-date=20 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240920090742/https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/9/18/israels-war-on-gaza-live-thousands-injured-in-lebanon-pager-explosions?update=3186546 |url-status=live }}
• {{cite web |title=EU's Borrell says Lebanon attacks aimed to 'spread terror' |url=https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-820903 |website=The Jerusalem Post |date=19 September 2024 |publisher=Reuters |access-date=22 September 2024 |archive-date=23 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240923023314/https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-820903 |url-status=live }}

{{Portal|Israel|Politics}}

• Iran–Saudi Arabia proxy conflict
• Iran and state-sponsored terrorism
• Pakistan and state-sponsored terrorism
• Qatar and state-sponsored terrorism
• Terrorism and the Soviet Union
• United States and state-sponsored terrorism
• Zionist political violence
• Assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite journal |last=Pieterse |first=Jan |author-link=Jan Nederveen Pieterse |title=State Terrorism on a Global Scale: The Role of Israel |journal=Crime and Social Justice |volume=21/22 |date=1984 |issue=21/22 |pages=58–80 |jstor=29766230}}

{{Iran–Israel proxy conflict}}

{{Terrorism topics}}

-

terrorism

terrorism

Category:Iran–Israel proxy conflict