The high-profile assassination of the top Hamas leader has raised fears of a regional clash and jeopardised peace talks aimed at ending the Gaza war. The killing of Ismail Haniyeh has heightened tensions in the region, with Iran accusing the United States of complicity and vowing revenge against Israel.
According to a report by the UK-based newspaper, Israeli intelligence agency Mossad hired Iranian security agents to plant explosives in a Tehran guesthouse where Haniyeh was staying. This is not an isolated incident. This covert Israeli operation adds to a long list of such missions, including explosions in underground nuclear facilities, cyber attacks, and the poisoning of top scientists.
Israel’s Shadow Wars
The assassination of Haniyeh is similar to past events, such as the 1978 killing of Wadie Haddad, the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Haddad was a key figure in the Israel-Palestine conflict, known for orchestrating the 1976 hijacking of an Air France plane during the infamous Entebbe operation.
The Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, wanted revenge for the Entebbe Hijacking. Wadie Haddad, the mastermind behind the hijacking, was their top target. After gaining international recognition, Wadie Haddad became a priority on Mossad’s kill list. To avoid a messy execution, the Israeli spy agency chose a quiet method and assigned the mission to an agent known as ‘Agent Sadness’, who had access to Haddad’s home and office.
‘Agent Sadness’
On January 10, 1978, Agent Sadness replaced Haddad’s regular toothpaste with a specially prepared toxic version. The toxin, developed at the Israel Institute for Biological Research, would go on to penetrate Haddad’s mucous membranes and gradually build up to a fatal dose. “Each time Haddad brushed his teeth, a minute quantity of the deadly toxin penetrated the mucous membranes in his mouth,” wrote Ronen Bergman, Yediot Aharonot’s senior military correspondent, according to the Jerusalem Post.
By mid-January, Wadie Haddad fell gravely ill in Baghdad. His symptoms were severe, consisting of abdominal spasms, loss of appetite and rapid weight loss of over 25 pounds. Despite treatment by top Iraqi doctors, his condition continued to deteriorate and he was diagnosed with hepatitis, then a severe cold. Even powerful antibiotics had no effect. His hair started falling out, raising suspicions of poisoning. Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, sought help from the East German Secret Service, the Stasi.
Rat poison or thallium poisoning?
The Stasi airlifted Wadie Haddad to East Berlin and admitted him to a secret hospital under the alias ‘Ahmed Doukli’. Doctors tested him extensively, but they could not determine the cause of his illness. They suspected either rat poison or thallium poisoning, without conclusive evidence. Wadie Haddad’s condition continued to deteriorate, with serious haemorrhaging and a dropping platelet count.
Doctors sedated him and kept him in the hospital for ten agonising days, but they could not save him. He died on March 29, 1978. An autopsy conducted by Professor Otto Prokop concluded that Wadie Haddad died from brain bleeding and pneumonia caused by panmyelopathy. However, the precise cause of the poisoning remained unclear for years. It took nearly three decades for the truth about Haddad’s assassination to come out.
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