Watan-The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth revealed on Thursday that Israel’s security establishment had secret plans to assassinate top Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed al-Deif before the October 7, 2023 attacks—known as Operation Al-Aqsa Flood—but the implementation of the plans was repeatedly postponed due to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s belief that Hamas had been deterred.
In the portion of the investigation released today—set for full publication on Friday—the newspaper states: “In 2023, several months before the Hamas attack, a detailed operational plan for the assassination was presented to Netanyahu.”
Since the code name for the operation is still under censorship, the newspaper has chosen to refer to it as “Double Rights.”
The plan aimed to simultaneously assassinate the two most senior Hamas figures at the time—both of whom Israel later targeted during the ongoing war. The operation gave the codename “King” to Mohammed al-Deif, commander of Hamas’s military wing (al-Qassam Brigades), and “Ace” to Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza.
This secret plan, revealed for the first time by Yedioth Ahronoth, was developed by Shin Bet (Israel’s internal security agency), the military intelligence division (Aman), and the Israeli Air Force. It was reportedly formulated as a lesson learned from the failure to eliminate “Ace” and “King” during Operation Guardian of the Walls (May 2021).
“Double Rights” was originally a single coordinated plan involving two separate operations—one to target Sinwar and the other al-Deif. Each could have been carried out independently, but the security agencies insisted they must be executed simultaneously.
Netanyahu Postponed the Operation Multiple Times
The assassination plan was drafted during 2022, but Netanyahu again postponed it, believing that after Operation Shield and Arrow—the Israeli assault on Gaza in May 2023, which targeted Islamic Jihad—Hamas had been deterred as well. Netanyahu was quoted as saying: “Since our assassination policy succeeded, there is currently a strong deterrence balance with Hamas.”
Missed Opportunities and Denial from Netanyahu’s Office
The investigation reveals multiple failed attempts and missed opportunities to kill Sinwar and al-Deif before October 7. One unnamed source summarized the failure to act:“When they wanted to [carry out the assassinations], they couldn’t. When they could, they didn’t want to. Until it was too late.”
In response, the office of Prime Minister Netanyahu denied that any such plan was presented to him.
The statement said:“In 2023, particularly in the period leading up to the October 7 massacre, no proposal was presented to the Prime Minister to target Hamas leaders in Gaza, nor was there full operational readiness for such a move. On the contrary, security agencies advised against it.”
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