Hunting the Terrorists of October 7

By Seth Mandel

Thursday, May 21, 2026

 

Noa Marciano, an IDF lookout attached to the military’s base at Nahal Oz, was captured alive by terrorists on October 7, 2023. Hamas claimed she was killed in an Israeli airstrike, but it turned out that she was taken to a Gaza hospital where a “doctor” injected air into her veins and killed her.

 

Eventually, the IDF learned that Muhammed Issam Hassan al-Habil was responsible for Marciano’s killing. On February 4 of this year, Habil was riding in a car in northwest Gaza when, according to the Wall Street Journal, a drone fired a missile at the terrorist, ending his life.

 

But what happened right before that is crucial: “Early on Feb. 4, Israeli troops came under fire while patrolling the yellow line that divides them from Hamas-controlled territory—an action in violation of the cease-fire.”

 

Israel’s campaign of targeted assassination is remarkable not only for its effectiveness and accuracy but for its steadfast adherence to its legal and diplomatic obligations.

 

The Journal story describes Israel’s terrorist-hunt after the attacks of October 7, in which a list of “thousands of names” of targets is “kept by an Israeli task force created for one job—to kill or capture all who planned or joined in the Oct. 7 attack.” It is, the Journal says, “one of the most personal and highly technical targeting campaigns in the history of warfare” in which Israel takes out participants from “the man who drove a tractor through a border fence that day” to top Hamas figure Saleh al-Arouri.

 

It is deliberately reminiscent of previous shadow campaigns. The name, NILI, is an acronym that was also given to a World War I Jewish spy network, though for most readers the article will likely call to mind the retributive campaign against the participants of the Munich massacre at the Olympics in 1972.

 

Putting names on the list and then finding and eliminating the terrorists is extremely difficult work. It can sometimes take years to get IDF approval for a single target. That’s because the campaign is meticulous in its adherence to legal rules that govern such considerations. Even if the campaign “feels retributive” to the average person, former U.S. Air Force judge advocate Rachel VanLandingham told the Journal, “the law doesn’t disallow that.”

 

As the aforementioned case demonstrates, Israel is even careful to abide by the rules of the cease-fire deal, in which it can respond to attacks but refrains from initiating them.

 

That is one element of the moral framework of this campaign. Another is the message: Jewish blood comes at a cost. Those who kill Israelis will be hunted down and given earthly justice. No one is allowed to get away with doing what these Palestinians did on October 7. “Agents run the images through facial recognition programs to sift for names, the officials said, and comb through intercepted phone calls. They view location data from cell tower logs and interrogate Gazan detainees to uncover who did what.”

 

Hamas itself has helped the process because so many terrorists videotaped and broadcast their demonic campaign of slaughter and torture. That makes it easier to find them. To my mind, it also makes it more important to find them and deliver justice.

 

That the Gazans’ crimes of that day were on par with those of the Nazis and of the pogromists of the Russian empire is indisputable. That the perpetrators were so proud of their work, and that they (incorrectly) assumed it would inspire Arabs within Israel to do the same, is civilizational poison, and must be treated as such. And that Israel is dispensing justice while so carefully hewing to laws, norms, and agreements is a reminder that this battle can be won.