Terrorism Close Calls (2018) s01e08 Episode Script
The Israel Honey Trap
[narrator.]
It's a deadly strategy by Hamas to instill terror and death on Israel.
Almost week after week, we heard about another suicide attacker.
[in Arabic.]
In the name of God, the merciful and compassionate, I have the honor to carry out this attack in the name of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
[narrator.]
Reem Riyashi is the first female suicide bomber for Hamas.
She is also a mother.
The scene of a suicide attack, it's very chaotic.
There's, almost all the time, something else behind the story.
[narrator.]
The Shin Bet, a branch of the Israeli General Security Service, reveals a surprising motive behind her attack.
Reem Riyashi was married to a Hamas guy, and she had an affair with another Hamas guy.
Unlike the males, the females were doomed to die.
[narrator.]
The leader of Hamas, along with Riyashi's former lover, are believed to have planned the suicide mission, and are suspected of plotting more attacks against Israel.
In order to protect Israeli citizens the Shin Bet respond with a controversial strategy called targeted killings.
Targeted killing is being used, first and foremost, in what we call the ticking-bomb situation.
In fighting terrorists, the first best is to detain terrorists, the second best is to kill them.
[narrator.]
True stories of the world's deadliest terror plots, with exclusive access to leading counter-terrorism experts and the elite agents who stopped the attacks.
- Homegrown terrorists.
- Jihadi propaganda.
Neo-Nazis.
This cuts across ideological lines, and it cuts across nationalism lines.
The depravity of the enemy we face knows no bounds, and so does our determination to keep them from hurting people.
People's lives depend on their success.
[narrator.]
On this episode of Terrorism Close Calls, a suicide attack at an Israeli checkpoint links back to the Hamas organization, and a deadly terror campaign against Israel during the Second Intifada.
In an effort to stop the attacks, Israeli security services launch an unprecedented series of targeted killings against the terror group and its leaders.
Located on the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, Israel is regarded the biblical holy land for the world's three major religions.
It's a region that's been in bloody conflict for centuries.
Since its declaration of independence in 1948, Israel has faced a new major war every single decade with her surrounding Arab states.
The Palestinians living in territories under Israeli control have their own governing bodies and view Israeli presence as an occupation.
The First Intifada, or uprising, led by arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat and the PLO, a terrorist organization, resulted in hundreds of deaths on both sides.
In an effort to alleviate the violence between Israel and the PLO, a set of agreements called the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993.
Yasser Arafat and the PLO agreed to recognize Israel's right to exist in peace and rejected violence and terrorism.
Israel recognized Yasser Arafat as the head of the Palestinian National Authority, an interim governing body on the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank.
Many hardliners on both sides opposed the agreements.
There were party breakers that didn't like the idea of having any kind of compromise within this peace process between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
[narrator.]
Boaz Ganor is the founder and executive director of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism.
The idea was that we find a solution to the problem, we find some territorial compromise between the two sides, you give us, in return, peace and security.
And from an Israeli perspective, from the Israeli narrative, the Palestinians didn't deliver the goods.
- [machine-gun fire.]
- [soldiers shouting.]
[narrator.]
According to the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the seven years following the Oslo Accords are some of the deadliest, with 269 fatal terror attacks against Israel, 12 of which conducted by suicide bombers.
Hamas, an Islamic terrorist organization, takes responsibility for many of these attacks.
Daniel Reisner is the former head of the Israel Defense Force law department, and a senior member of Israel's peace delegations.
Hamas is a different thing for different people.
For the Israeli public, Hamas is one of the three or four archenemies of Israel, the Jewish people, the Jewish state, etc.
It's a militant, fundamentalist Islamic movement.
[narrator.]
Co-founded in 1987 by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Hamas is a Palestinian organization with both a military wing as well as a social welfare division.
At its core is a commitment to the destruction of Israel.
It's regarded as a terrorist organization by many countries, including the United States and European Union.
Israeli-Palestinian violence escalates to even more extremes at the start of the second Palestinian uprising against Israel, known as the Second Intifada.
There were Palestinians that were throwing stones on the Israeli side.
The Israeli side gave the approval for the Israeli police to go into the Temple Mount and to arrest these people.
They were using live ammunition, and in around 30 minutes, you had 13 casualties, 13 dead people, and tens and tens and tens of injured Palestinians, and, very fast, we found ourselves in kind of a war situation.
[crowd shouting.]
[narrator.]
Avi Issacharoff is a Middle East analyst, journalist, author, and television writer, creator of the popular television series Fauda.
The way that the Second Intifada escalated, I would say that it went out of control in 24 hours, maybe 48.
In January 2001 there was a series of suicide attacks that Hamas announced in advance that they will commit, more than ten suicide attacks.
And month after month, almost week after week, we heard about another suicide attacker, and another suicide attacker.
At the heart of the organized terrorist operation was Hamas's leadership, Hamas's commanders in the area, that were capable of recruiting suicide attackers, to give them the weapon, meaning the suicide explosive belts, and to send them into their targets, mainly inside Israel.
[Boaz Ganor.]
From the point of view of the Palestinians, committing suicide is a religious felony, so it cannot be supported, it cannot be praised.
But becoming a martyr, or in their word, becoming a shahid, and that's what they believe they do, this is, of course, blessed.
This is very prestigious to be a martyr.
Building the narrative that committing those horrific attacks not only that it's legitimate, not only that it's justified, it's actually a divine command, a fatwa.
This is God's mission.
They have created this belief that, and I quote, "When the first drop of blood is being shed from the body of the martyr, he's already knocking on the doors of Heaven.
" So, it's a direct way.
It's the fast way.
It's the fast track to Heaven in their views.
And in Heaven, they're going to get 72 virgins that would serve them.
In Heaven.
Now, if you believe in this bullshit then this is very concrete for you at the end of the This is very beneficial.
[narrator.]
The suicide attack proves an extremely effective strategy in terror.
[Avi Issacharoff.]
Suicide attacks is one of the most deadliest ones of all the terrorist strategies that I know.
Why? Because this is the most accurate weapon.
This is just like a bomb that is being shot from an F-16, a missile with some kind of a navigation, a very sophisticated navigation system.
This is a suicide attack.
[narrator.]
Hamas deploys another human bomb to a new target, the Erez Crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
[Issacharoff.]
Erez Checkpoint is at the northern end of the Gaza Strip, or the southern end of the border of Israel with the Gaza Strip.
This is the main checkpoint in which people went into the Gaza Strip and went out of the Gaza Strip.
[narrator.]
Twenty-two-year-old Reem Riyashi walks with a noticeable limp towards the Erez Crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
[Issacharoff.]
She got, around 9:30, to the checkpoint.
So when she got to the Palestinian Authority checkpoint, she said, "I'm on the way to Israel to get some medical treatment.
" [narrator.]
The Palestinian Authority allows her to continue to the Israeli checkpoint, where she tries to pass through a metal detector.
When she was scanned, the machine made beep.
Loud beep, meaning she had something on her.
Then she explained to the soldiers, or the security people, she pulled up her pants a bit higher, and her dress, and show them that there's some kind of a bandage over her leg.
And she had a platen in her leg, this is what she claimed, and that the beep is because of the platen.
[narrator.]
The guard leads Riyashi to a private room in order to conduct a physical search.
[Issacharoff.]
And she got into a place where a security woman is checking you, physically checking you.
And when the security woman went to take her gloves from somewhere, she used that, and, in seconds, just walked towards the security people, and then, boom, blew herself.
[narrator.]
Riyashi detonates the explosive device concealed in her body, killing four soldiers and a civilian employee, and injuring ten others, including four Palestinians.
The explosion is strong enough to blow the roof off the building, and scatter human remains to the point that the bomber's body can't be distinguished from her other victims.
[Ganor.]
The terrorists aren't just using explosive devices, they are using also additives.
It could be nails, sometimes nails that are being cut from both ends in order to make it easier to infiltrate into the body of the victim.
It could be screws, and so on and so forth.
It could be iron balls.
[explosion.]
The scene of a suicide attack, it's very chaotic.
[narrator.]
As Israelis mourn their dead, Hamas celebrates the attack.
[in Arabic.]
But if our brothers in the jihad movement saw that a woman needs to fight, and saw that they had to carry out a terrorist attack with the help of a woman, "they will do it.
" In my opinion, this is a new beginning for women, but for the sacrifice of the martyrs this is not the beginning.
[narrator.]
Reem Riyashi, the first Palestinian female suicide bomber, became a hero for the Palestinian cause.
[Issacharoff.]
Hamas published a videocassette of her saying that she did it for the Palestinian cause, and for the Palestinian people.
[in Arabic.]
With God's help, I'm going to be the first woman to carry out an attack, provided my body explodes to pieces and particles.
This is the dream I prayed to God for.
[narrator.]
Riyashi is not only Hamas' first female suicide bomber, even more shocking, she's a mother of two young children.
In the aftermath of the bombing, her children became pawns for Hamas propaganda.
We are now going to the two children of Reem Riyashi, the martyrdom-seeker, and jihad fighter.
Duha and Muhammad.
Duha, do you love Mommy? Where did Mommy go? To paradise.
Became a shahida.
[man.]
She killed Jews.
Right? - How many Jews did she kill? - Five Hamas goes even further to produce a short film depicting the attack, which they screen on Al-Aqsa TV, broadcast in the Gaza Strip.
[woman singing in Arabic.]
Come back quickly, Mommy Instead of me you carried a bomb In your hands Only now, I know what Was more precious than us [in Arabic.]
These are the children of the shahida the heroic jihad fighter who sacrificed all that she had for her homeland.
We say to the occupier, that we will continue in the footsteps of the shahida, the jihad fighter Reem Riyashi, until we liberate our homeland from your hands, usurper.
Recruiting women was something that was kind of a taboo.
When we had a suicide attack made by a woman, that was kind of a very rare, very unique, and there's always the question that needs to be asked, "What made her go and do this suicide attack?" [narrator.]
For a country under constant threat the Israeli internal security agency is one of the world's most formidable.
The Shin Bet, also known in Hebrew by its acronym Shabak, is one of its main entities, along with military intelligence and the Mossad.
The Shin Bet mission is to protect and serve the state of Israel.
Operations are carried out under a heavy veil of secrecy characterized by their motto, "the unseen shield.
" The Shin Bet, in so many words, it's like the equivalent of the FBI.
This means the internal intelligence agency that is operating, working inside Israel, and in the Palestinian territories, in order to prevent terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians, whether they're Jews or Arabs.
[narrator.]
Avi Dichter, former minister of homeland security, was appointed director of the Shin Bet just two months before the start of the Second Intifada.
It was a surprise because she's the first Hamas terrorist, female, that carried out a suicide bombing.
Till then, all suicide bombers sent by Hamas were males under 20, above 20, but she was the first one.
We didn't know that they have changed their minds and sent females.
There's, almost all the time, something else behind the story, behind the scenes, that you needed to go and to dig and dig and dig in order to understand what was the story.
[narrator.]
The Shin Bet are soon able to gather more information about Riyashi, and investigate possible motives.
[Issacharoff.]
Reem Riyashi was married to a Hamas guy.
And it seems like she found herself in kind of a very complicated situation, because she had an affair with another Hamas guy.
It took some time until we understood and we learned the details about the lover, about the husband.
When they found out that this commander from Hamas had an affair with her, they didn't blame him, they blamed her.
So in order to clean her name, in order to make her image better for her family and friends, they told her, "Okay, now you need to go and to commit a suicide attack.
" [Ganor.]
Those are felonies that, in this culture, has a death penalty, at the end of the day.
Now, the question that this female has is, "What do I do?" Do I die in shame, and inflict shame on my family and everybody that I'm connected to? Or do I die in glory? [in Arabic.]
My dear mother, you who have cared for me, today I sacrifice my life to be your intercessor.
[narrator.]
Although many suicide bombers choose the so-called "martyr's path" of their own free will, others are believed to act as punishment for a perceived wrong-doing.
[Avi Dichter.]
They call it Kvod Hamishpacha family dignity.
And they don't have to bring her to trial.
There's no need to bring hard evidence.
All you need to do is suspect her.
And then, what happens normally, the males of the family are gathering together, and they decide who is going to kill her.
In many cases, unlike the males, the females were doomed to die or at least believed that they're doomed to die, with a suicide attack or without a suicide attack.
[narrator.]
Riyashi's husband, along with her former lover, a Hamas commander, decide her punishment.
But first, they need to gain approval from Hamas founder and spiritual leader, the nearly blind quadriplegic, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
[Daniel Reisner.]
Sheikh Yassin stood at the head of the pyramid of Hamas operations.
He was responsible for arranging money for, giving general instructions to, receiving reports from, and generally coordinating all of Hamas activities, including the military wing.
So, he was more or less the prime minister of Hamas.
He was in charge of everything.
He had the responsibility and the capability to instruct Hamas to carry out attacks or to stop carrying out attacks.
[narrator.]
Sheikh Yassin, gives the men his approval for Riyashi to conduct a suicide bombing on behalf of Hamas.
So, when they got the permit from Sheikh Yassin, they went to her, told her the story, her husband, and she understood that she has no choice.
She knew she's going to be killed anyway.
[narrator.]
Hamas maintains the position that Riyashi acted on her own free will.
They simply supported and gave her permission.
Jihad is now everyone's duty, male and female.
The Shin Bet focus on those responsible and actively recruiting for even more suicide campaigns against Israel.
Among them are Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Riyashi's lover, the Hamas commander who they believe sent her to her death.
So when you are dealing with a terror organization like that, you have to be very, very tough, very accurate, and very direct with your treatment.
That's why I always kept saying, and I keep saying it till today, "Thousands of mothers of terrorists will cry, but not my mom.
" That's my philosophy in a nutshell.
[narrator.]
For Israel, a direct link between the political leadership of Hamas and the attack on the Erez Crossing marked a clear opportunity for Israel to target those in charge.
America calls this controversial method of securing a country "targeted killings.
" The problem with the Second Intifada was that the methods used against us were much more military in nature.
It wasn't stones and Molotov cocktails.
It was bombs, rockets, mortars, machine guns, grenades, and any other type of military equipment, which were being used in huge numbers all over the place.
So, it actually looked like, felt like, and attacked like a war, but the people on the other side weren't part of the military of a state.
All of the rules were developed for state versus state warfare.
So what we actually had to do was to adapt these rules to state versus non-state entity warfare.
[crowd shouting.]
[narrator.]
The rules change, allowing Israel to target combatants of another state under five strict conditions, and only with the approval from the highest political levels.
In this case, prior approval from the former Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon.
[Reisner.]
So, those five conditions, we made them up.
We developed them ourselves.
They didn't exist before.
And we use them to explain why we think targeted killing, in the context of state versus non-state entity conflict, makes sense.
[narrator.]
Along with the suicide attacks, Sheikh Yassin is also believed to have given approval for launching Qassam rockets against Israeli cities.
He makes public declarations calling for the continuation of the armed struggle against Israel, and for an intensification of the terrorist campaign.
Prime Minister Sharon calls Yassin "the mastermind of Palestinian terror.
" [interviewer in Arabic.]
What do you think of the future for Israel? [Yassin in Arabic.]
[narrator.]
Determined to stop more attacks against Israel, Prime Minister Sharon approves a ruling for a targeted killing Sheikh Yassin is officially marked for death.
As word hits the street that Israel has Sheikh Yassin in their sights, Hamas tightens security around him.
[Dichter.]
They tried to hide him very, very much.
They kept him in shelters, and they moved him every day to another place.
They tried to trick us.
But, finally, when you are determined enough, and have good sources, and good tools, and you know the job So, determination brings you to the end, or brings him to the end.
[narrator.]
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin's bodyguards escort him out from an early-morning prayer session at a mosque close to his home unaware that an Apache A-64 helicopter has locked onto his location.
Before anyone can react the Apache fires three Hellfire missiles at their target, killing Yassin, his bodyguards, and nine bystanders.
Sheikh Yassin is, by far, the most significant Palestinian militant killed by Israel.
Two hundred thousand people take to the streets of the Gaza Strip for Yassin's funeral, as Israeli forces declare a national alert.
Because this was the most prominent Hamas leader, the founder of Hamas, the ideologist of Hamas, it was quite clear, Israeli aircraft kills Yassin.
The motivation to retaliate was very, very high.
[narrator.]
For Israeli security services, the operation is seen as a significant blow to Hamas.
But the assassination isn't met with a positive response by all.
You can say that the United States is deeply concerned about deeply troubled by this morning's actions, that the event, in our view, increases tension, and doesn't help our efforts to resume progress towards peace.
[narrator.]
As the world debates the risks and consequences of targeted killings, Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi is announced the new head of Hamas.
Sometimes you get rid of the enemy you know, you find yourself with someone even worse.
[crowd shouting.]
[narrator.]
Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, nicknamed "The Lion of Palestine," calls for retaliation, and the destruction of Israel.
[in Arabic.]
Sharon and the leaders of the Zionist gangs will not enjoy security, they will never in their lives enjoy security, because the land of Palestine is the land of the Muslim waqf.
And we will not allow the occupiers to destroy our land.
We will fight them everywhere, in every neighborhood, and we will teach them a lesson in coping.
[narrator.]
In a speech to the military wing of Hamas, Rantisi declares, "The door is open for you to strike all places, all the time, and using all means.
" [Dichter.]
We took it into account.
We knew it was going to cause something different.
[narrator.]
Hamas militants answer the call of Rantisi to retaliate, and Israel sees another bloody spike in attacks.
Less than one month after the assassination of Sheikh Yassin, Israel goes after a new target.
As Hamas leader Rantisi, his bodyguard, and 27-year-old son Mohammed drive a car through the streets of Gaza, Hellfire missiles rain down from an Israeli Apache helicopter, immediately killing all occupants in the car.
Israeli security services brace themselves for Hamas retaliation, and all resources go towards stopping the next attack.
But, sadly, another set of bombers slip through to strike in Israel.
[explosion.]
Two suicide bombings occur almost simultaneously aboard commuter buses in the city of Beersheba, killing 16 and injuring more than 100.
Hamas states the attack is a revenge for the assassination of Rantisi and Yassin.
But, overall, attacks begin to fall.
The limiting factor of Hamas in conducting terrorist attacks, severe terrorist attacks, was very limited at that specific period of time as an outcome of the Israeli counter-terrorism measures.
[narrator.]
Less than two months after Reem Riyashi detonated herself at Erez Crossing, two Hamas leaders are dead.
Although her true motivation for the suicide attack may never be known, her affair the Shin Bet claim she had with a known operational commander for the Hamas military wing cannot be ignored.
The Shin Bet confirm intelligence that indicate new plots against Israel involving the commander are being hatched.
With no real opportunity to bring him to justice and detain him in Israel, the Shin Bet decide their next best option is to go after him on his own turf.
In fighting terrorists, the first best is to detain terrorists, the second best is to kill them.
[narrator.]
The operation starts with a clever plan to lure him into a trap.
The Hamas commander receives a phone call from a woman claiming to have reached his number by accident.
He believes she's an Israeli Arab woman.
They flirt and she seduces him into taking more calls.
They continue the conversations for the next two months, but what the commander doesn't know is that the woman on the other end of the line is a Shin Bet agent scheming to gain his trust.
In the beginning it was regular calls, regular talks, although we knew his soft point.
We knew his weakness: women.
[narrator.]
As the commander becomes more comfortable with her, she begins to send him gifts, among them, a box of tracksuits which helps Israeli agents identify those involved.
This is a long-term strategy.
The phone calls continue over the course of a year, becoming more and more intimate as time goes on.
[Dichter.]
And once the line is strong enough, you start putting margins and products on it.
Small gift that doesn't create any threat.
Then a bigger one, then gifts that obey his requests.
It's called circular training.
We didn't send him a voucher for Macy's.
You have to work very carefully, so he will be sure that it's his decisions, that he controls everything.
[inaudible.]
We've been waiting up until things will get warmer.
When it started to get warmer, and we saw that, if I may say, he fell in love with her, although he never saw her, but by phone calls.
We started to hear more and more talks about "Maybe we can get married.
" [narrator.]
The Shin Bet operation is playing out as they hoped.
They quickly plan for the end game.
This time with another gift containing an extra special surprise.
[Dichter.]
And he got it.
And he went to his room, closed the door, and called her.
And she told him, "Open the box.
" He opened the box, and it was very impressive to see the golden dome.
A model that was built very nice.
We paid for it, a few hundred of shekel.
It was beautiful.
And he told her, "I appreciate very much the way that you decided to celebrate our year anniversary of getting together.
" Said, "I know, but that's not the personal gift I wanted to give you.
" She told him, "Twist the dome.
" He started to twist the dome.
He opened it, and then he saw, inside, underwear.
He asked her, "Wow.
I appreciate it so much.
" Said, "No, that's not the end of it.
If you want to smell the special perfume I use, smell it.
" They have to be very, very accurate with the timing, we cannot make any mistake.
[narrator.]
As he leans in, the gift containing an explosive device is remotely detonated.
When he was close enough to the bomb we detonated it.
The Shin Bet never disclose the name of the commander, but they are sure they have eliminated one of the top Hamas operatives actively plotting against Israel.
If I would have remembered all the names of the archterrorists I would forget the good guys.
I prefer to forget the bad guys' names and to remember the good guys.
[narrator.]
Since World War II, Israel has assassinated more terrorist leaders than any other country in the Western world.
It is the first state to publicly outline a policy of liquidation and preemptive targeted killings as a form of military attacks to contain terror.
By the end of the Second Intifada, almost 300 terrorist organization members, along with 150 civilian bystanders, had been killed in targeted killings.
[Ganor.]
The arguments were that, how can a state like that conduct a certain type of capital punishment on those terrorists without even giving them the chance to defend themselves, to come to court, to give other evidence, to prove that they're innocent, or whatever.
This seems to be immoral and unjust method.
And the position was the following one Targeted killing is not being used by Israel as a certain type of punishment.
Targeted killing is a certain type of warfare within this irregular warfare of countering terrorism, which is legitimate only in what we call the ticking-bomb situation.
[narrator.]
For the Shin Bet and Israeli Government, Sheikh Yassin, Rantisi, and the Hamas commander are all ticking bombs, directing, funding, recruiting, and giving the green light to attack and kill Israelis.
[Issacharoff.]
The Prime Minister back then, Ariel Sharon, decided to go into war against the suicide attacks, whatever the cost will be.
And this is when Avi Dichter, as the head of Shin Bet, former head of Shin Bet, gave a speech to his people, telling them, "We know that it's like emptying the sea with a spoon, but at the end of the day, we will win that.
" And Avi Dichter was right.
They managed to empty the sea with a spoon.
[Dichter.]
The barrel of terrorists has a bottom, it's not a bottomless barrel.
You don't need to find the last terrorist in the barrel in order to dry it, but you need to reach a critical mass of terrorists, beginning with the archterrorists, up until you block it.
[narrator.]
The Second Intifada officially ends on February 8, 2005.
By that time, Israel sees a significant decrease in suicide attacks.
Although the United States condemned targeted killings for decades, they came to embrace the strategy for themselves.
Former President Obama approved ten times as many air strikes than his predecessor, George W.
Bush, mainly by drones in Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen.
Today, President Trump is working to overturn Obama-era limits on these strikes.
[Reisner.]
In the short term, targeted killing is extremely effective, because it takes out a high-profile target, which has been an ongoing threat to you.
And, as a result, you decrease a short-term threat.
In the long term, any tool, including targeted killing, also continues the cycle of violence, regenerates leadership, and usually also creates a process of extremism.
In other words, the more the fight goes on, people become more extreme.
[Ganor.]
If you ask me, and probably other Israeli expert, "What is the one measure which is more important than anything else?" Intelligence, intelligence, intelligence.
And I think that Israel have gathered a lot of capabilities of collecting intelligence, processing that in a way that gives the ability to react, and to prevent terrorist attacks before they occur.
[Dichter.]
Sharing modus operandi, tools.
There are not too much secrets amongst allies in fighting terrorists.
That's what I did when I was head of Shin Bet, with CIA, FBI, MI6, MI5, BND, whatever We have to share with them information.
They could learn something through our experience.
I remember, they used to tell me, "Avi, we don't have suicide bombers.
" I said, "That's what we said up until 1993.
" [narrator.]
In January 2006, Hamas wins the Palestinian parliamentary elections to establish a Palestinian National Unity Government in Gaza.
[Ganor.]
As an outcome of the fact that Hamas took over this territory, all the enormous resources that they got from the international community they decided that they would take this money in order to purchase, and to buy military weapons, in order to create missiles that would be used against Israel.
[shouting.]
[in Arabic.]
United, we will cut off the head of the enemy.
[Reisner.]
At the end of the day, we're looking at an organization which is way more powerful than what you would normally think about a terrorist organization, because it has territory, it has funds, a lot of people who can enlist in the organization.
[narrator.]
After winning power, Hamas refuse international terms to renounce violence and allow Israel the right to exist.
As a result, the US, EU, and Israel do not recognize the Hamas government, and instead support Palestinian President Abbas' government in the West Bank.
The outcome is that the average Palestinian is living in poverty, is living in misery is find it very difficult to supply the basic needs to his family, to his kids.
[narrator.]
While so much of the Palestinians' and Israelis' history has involved bloodshed, terror, and instability, and world leaders continue to work towards a resolution, the region remains even more volatile and unstable.
In rhetoric reminiscence of his early predecessors, new Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar calls for the violent destruction of Israel.
[Sinwar speaking Arabic.]
[narrator.]
During what protestors call the March of Return, thousands of Palestinian citizens abide Hamas' call to attack the border with Israel, to protest the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to move its embassy there.
As protestors throw rocks, burn kites, and throw Molotov cocktails and other bombs towards the fence, Israeli soldiers respond by firing tear gas and bullets.
Sixty protestors are killed, including 52 Hamas terrorists, and six children brought to the border to be used as human shields.
[in Arabic.]
Our people sacrificed 60 martyrs on May 14, as well as 3,000 wounded.
They were used to sign our people's rejection of the reckless decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem [continues speaking.]
[Issacharoff.]
I think that, at the end of the day, a nation that wants to live is much stronger than a nation that is making the dead people their ambition in life.
Making the dead people their heroes.
Making the dead people a kind of a target to reach one day.
So, I think that, at the end of the day, a society that glorifies life and not death this is a society that will prevail and win.
[Ganor.]
I think that if you have poor and depressed neighbors, it's not a good sign for you as their neighbor, as well.
Not just from the moral perspective, which I can identify with those poor people, but also as a neighbor.
But, unfortunately, the responsibility is first and foremost on the shoulder of Hamas leaders and their supporters.
It could've been different.
It can be different in the future.
[narrator.]
As the region grapples with yet more bloodshed, the Israeli public may lean more heavily on their security services for protection.
[Reisner.]
The Shabak faces, I think, a dual-edged sword.
On the one hand, every terrorist attack they do not prevent is a failure, because the Israeli public has become used to the fact that we are very good at prevention.
[narrator.]
Since its inception in 1948 with the declaration of Israel's independence, the Shin Bet and other organizations within the Israeli Security Agency has successfully thwarted tens of thousands of attacks against Israeli targets.
[Reisner.]
We have Iron Dome against rockets and missiles, and we have Shabak against terrorists.
The Israeli public is used to the fact that its shield is very effective.
It's a deadly strategy by Hamas to instill terror and death on Israel.
Almost week after week, we heard about another suicide attacker.
[in Arabic.]
In the name of God, the merciful and compassionate, I have the honor to carry out this attack in the name of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
[narrator.]
Reem Riyashi is the first female suicide bomber for Hamas.
She is also a mother.
The scene of a suicide attack, it's very chaotic.
There's, almost all the time, something else behind the story.
[narrator.]
The Shin Bet, a branch of the Israeli General Security Service, reveals a surprising motive behind her attack.
Reem Riyashi was married to a Hamas guy, and she had an affair with another Hamas guy.
Unlike the males, the females were doomed to die.
[narrator.]
The leader of Hamas, along with Riyashi's former lover, are believed to have planned the suicide mission, and are suspected of plotting more attacks against Israel.
In order to protect Israeli citizens the Shin Bet respond with a controversial strategy called targeted killings.
Targeted killing is being used, first and foremost, in what we call the ticking-bomb situation.
In fighting terrorists, the first best is to detain terrorists, the second best is to kill them.
[narrator.]
True stories of the world's deadliest terror plots, with exclusive access to leading counter-terrorism experts and the elite agents who stopped the attacks.
- Homegrown terrorists.
- Jihadi propaganda.
Neo-Nazis.
This cuts across ideological lines, and it cuts across nationalism lines.
The depravity of the enemy we face knows no bounds, and so does our determination to keep them from hurting people.
People's lives depend on their success.
[narrator.]
On this episode of Terrorism Close Calls, a suicide attack at an Israeli checkpoint links back to the Hamas organization, and a deadly terror campaign against Israel during the Second Intifada.
In an effort to stop the attacks, Israeli security services launch an unprecedented series of targeted killings against the terror group and its leaders.
Located on the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, Israel is regarded the biblical holy land for the world's three major religions.
It's a region that's been in bloody conflict for centuries.
Since its declaration of independence in 1948, Israel has faced a new major war every single decade with her surrounding Arab states.
The Palestinians living in territories under Israeli control have their own governing bodies and view Israeli presence as an occupation.
The First Intifada, or uprising, led by arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat and the PLO, a terrorist organization, resulted in hundreds of deaths on both sides.
In an effort to alleviate the violence between Israel and the PLO, a set of agreements called the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993.
Yasser Arafat and the PLO agreed to recognize Israel's right to exist in peace and rejected violence and terrorism.
Israel recognized Yasser Arafat as the head of the Palestinian National Authority, an interim governing body on the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank.
Many hardliners on both sides opposed the agreements.
There were party breakers that didn't like the idea of having any kind of compromise within this peace process between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
[narrator.]
Boaz Ganor is the founder and executive director of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism.
The idea was that we find a solution to the problem, we find some territorial compromise between the two sides, you give us, in return, peace and security.
And from an Israeli perspective, from the Israeli narrative, the Palestinians didn't deliver the goods.
- [machine-gun fire.]
- [soldiers shouting.]
[narrator.]
According to the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the seven years following the Oslo Accords are some of the deadliest, with 269 fatal terror attacks against Israel, 12 of which conducted by suicide bombers.
Hamas, an Islamic terrorist organization, takes responsibility for many of these attacks.
Daniel Reisner is the former head of the Israel Defense Force law department, and a senior member of Israel's peace delegations.
Hamas is a different thing for different people.
For the Israeli public, Hamas is one of the three or four archenemies of Israel, the Jewish people, the Jewish state, etc.
It's a militant, fundamentalist Islamic movement.
[narrator.]
Co-founded in 1987 by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Hamas is a Palestinian organization with both a military wing as well as a social welfare division.
At its core is a commitment to the destruction of Israel.
It's regarded as a terrorist organization by many countries, including the United States and European Union.
Israeli-Palestinian violence escalates to even more extremes at the start of the second Palestinian uprising against Israel, known as the Second Intifada.
There were Palestinians that were throwing stones on the Israeli side.
The Israeli side gave the approval for the Israeli police to go into the Temple Mount and to arrest these people.
They were using live ammunition, and in around 30 minutes, you had 13 casualties, 13 dead people, and tens and tens and tens of injured Palestinians, and, very fast, we found ourselves in kind of a war situation.
[crowd shouting.]
[narrator.]
Avi Issacharoff is a Middle East analyst, journalist, author, and television writer, creator of the popular television series Fauda.
The way that the Second Intifada escalated, I would say that it went out of control in 24 hours, maybe 48.
In January 2001 there was a series of suicide attacks that Hamas announced in advance that they will commit, more than ten suicide attacks.
And month after month, almost week after week, we heard about another suicide attacker, and another suicide attacker.
At the heart of the organized terrorist operation was Hamas's leadership, Hamas's commanders in the area, that were capable of recruiting suicide attackers, to give them the weapon, meaning the suicide explosive belts, and to send them into their targets, mainly inside Israel.
[Boaz Ganor.]
From the point of view of the Palestinians, committing suicide is a religious felony, so it cannot be supported, it cannot be praised.
But becoming a martyr, or in their word, becoming a shahid, and that's what they believe they do, this is, of course, blessed.
This is very prestigious to be a martyr.
Building the narrative that committing those horrific attacks not only that it's legitimate, not only that it's justified, it's actually a divine command, a fatwa.
This is God's mission.
They have created this belief that, and I quote, "When the first drop of blood is being shed from the body of the martyr, he's already knocking on the doors of Heaven.
" So, it's a direct way.
It's the fast way.
It's the fast track to Heaven in their views.
And in Heaven, they're going to get 72 virgins that would serve them.
In Heaven.
Now, if you believe in this bullshit then this is very concrete for you at the end of the This is very beneficial.
[narrator.]
The suicide attack proves an extremely effective strategy in terror.
[Avi Issacharoff.]
Suicide attacks is one of the most deadliest ones of all the terrorist strategies that I know.
Why? Because this is the most accurate weapon.
This is just like a bomb that is being shot from an F-16, a missile with some kind of a navigation, a very sophisticated navigation system.
This is a suicide attack.
[narrator.]
Hamas deploys another human bomb to a new target, the Erez Crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
[Issacharoff.]
Erez Checkpoint is at the northern end of the Gaza Strip, or the southern end of the border of Israel with the Gaza Strip.
This is the main checkpoint in which people went into the Gaza Strip and went out of the Gaza Strip.
[narrator.]
Twenty-two-year-old Reem Riyashi walks with a noticeable limp towards the Erez Crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
[Issacharoff.]
She got, around 9:30, to the checkpoint.
So when she got to the Palestinian Authority checkpoint, she said, "I'm on the way to Israel to get some medical treatment.
" [narrator.]
The Palestinian Authority allows her to continue to the Israeli checkpoint, where she tries to pass through a metal detector.
When she was scanned, the machine made beep.
Loud beep, meaning she had something on her.
Then she explained to the soldiers, or the security people, she pulled up her pants a bit higher, and her dress, and show them that there's some kind of a bandage over her leg.
And she had a platen in her leg, this is what she claimed, and that the beep is because of the platen.
[narrator.]
The guard leads Riyashi to a private room in order to conduct a physical search.
[Issacharoff.]
And she got into a place where a security woman is checking you, physically checking you.
And when the security woman went to take her gloves from somewhere, she used that, and, in seconds, just walked towards the security people, and then, boom, blew herself.
[narrator.]
Riyashi detonates the explosive device concealed in her body, killing four soldiers and a civilian employee, and injuring ten others, including four Palestinians.
The explosion is strong enough to blow the roof off the building, and scatter human remains to the point that the bomber's body can't be distinguished from her other victims.
[Ganor.]
The terrorists aren't just using explosive devices, they are using also additives.
It could be nails, sometimes nails that are being cut from both ends in order to make it easier to infiltrate into the body of the victim.
It could be screws, and so on and so forth.
It could be iron balls.
[explosion.]
The scene of a suicide attack, it's very chaotic.
[narrator.]
As Israelis mourn their dead, Hamas celebrates the attack.
[in Arabic.]
But if our brothers in the jihad movement saw that a woman needs to fight, and saw that they had to carry out a terrorist attack with the help of a woman, "they will do it.
" In my opinion, this is a new beginning for women, but for the sacrifice of the martyrs this is not the beginning.
[narrator.]
Reem Riyashi, the first Palestinian female suicide bomber, became a hero for the Palestinian cause.
[Issacharoff.]
Hamas published a videocassette of her saying that she did it for the Palestinian cause, and for the Palestinian people.
[in Arabic.]
With God's help, I'm going to be the first woman to carry out an attack, provided my body explodes to pieces and particles.
This is the dream I prayed to God for.
[narrator.]
Riyashi is not only Hamas' first female suicide bomber, even more shocking, she's a mother of two young children.
In the aftermath of the bombing, her children became pawns for Hamas propaganda.
We are now going to the two children of Reem Riyashi, the martyrdom-seeker, and jihad fighter.
Duha and Muhammad.
Duha, do you love Mommy? Where did Mommy go? To paradise.
Became a shahida.
[man.]
She killed Jews.
Right? - How many Jews did she kill? - Five Hamas goes even further to produce a short film depicting the attack, which they screen on Al-Aqsa TV, broadcast in the Gaza Strip.
[woman singing in Arabic.]
Come back quickly, Mommy Instead of me you carried a bomb In your hands Only now, I know what Was more precious than us [in Arabic.]
These are the children of the shahida the heroic jihad fighter who sacrificed all that she had for her homeland.
We say to the occupier, that we will continue in the footsteps of the shahida, the jihad fighter Reem Riyashi, until we liberate our homeland from your hands, usurper.
Recruiting women was something that was kind of a taboo.
When we had a suicide attack made by a woman, that was kind of a very rare, very unique, and there's always the question that needs to be asked, "What made her go and do this suicide attack?" [narrator.]
For a country under constant threat the Israeli internal security agency is one of the world's most formidable.
The Shin Bet, also known in Hebrew by its acronym Shabak, is one of its main entities, along with military intelligence and the Mossad.
The Shin Bet mission is to protect and serve the state of Israel.
Operations are carried out under a heavy veil of secrecy characterized by their motto, "the unseen shield.
" The Shin Bet, in so many words, it's like the equivalent of the FBI.
This means the internal intelligence agency that is operating, working inside Israel, and in the Palestinian territories, in order to prevent terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians, whether they're Jews or Arabs.
[narrator.]
Avi Dichter, former minister of homeland security, was appointed director of the Shin Bet just two months before the start of the Second Intifada.
It was a surprise because she's the first Hamas terrorist, female, that carried out a suicide bombing.
Till then, all suicide bombers sent by Hamas were males under 20, above 20, but she was the first one.
We didn't know that they have changed their minds and sent females.
There's, almost all the time, something else behind the story, behind the scenes, that you needed to go and to dig and dig and dig in order to understand what was the story.
[narrator.]
The Shin Bet are soon able to gather more information about Riyashi, and investigate possible motives.
[Issacharoff.]
Reem Riyashi was married to a Hamas guy.
And it seems like she found herself in kind of a very complicated situation, because she had an affair with another Hamas guy.
It took some time until we understood and we learned the details about the lover, about the husband.
When they found out that this commander from Hamas had an affair with her, they didn't blame him, they blamed her.
So in order to clean her name, in order to make her image better for her family and friends, they told her, "Okay, now you need to go and to commit a suicide attack.
" [Ganor.]
Those are felonies that, in this culture, has a death penalty, at the end of the day.
Now, the question that this female has is, "What do I do?" Do I die in shame, and inflict shame on my family and everybody that I'm connected to? Or do I die in glory? [in Arabic.]
My dear mother, you who have cared for me, today I sacrifice my life to be your intercessor.
[narrator.]
Although many suicide bombers choose the so-called "martyr's path" of their own free will, others are believed to act as punishment for a perceived wrong-doing.
[Avi Dichter.]
They call it Kvod Hamishpacha family dignity.
And they don't have to bring her to trial.
There's no need to bring hard evidence.
All you need to do is suspect her.
And then, what happens normally, the males of the family are gathering together, and they decide who is going to kill her.
In many cases, unlike the males, the females were doomed to die or at least believed that they're doomed to die, with a suicide attack or without a suicide attack.
[narrator.]
Riyashi's husband, along with her former lover, a Hamas commander, decide her punishment.
But first, they need to gain approval from Hamas founder and spiritual leader, the nearly blind quadriplegic, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
[Daniel Reisner.]
Sheikh Yassin stood at the head of the pyramid of Hamas operations.
He was responsible for arranging money for, giving general instructions to, receiving reports from, and generally coordinating all of Hamas activities, including the military wing.
So, he was more or less the prime minister of Hamas.
He was in charge of everything.
He had the responsibility and the capability to instruct Hamas to carry out attacks or to stop carrying out attacks.
[narrator.]
Sheikh Yassin, gives the men his approval for Riyashi to conduct a suicide bombing on behalf of Hamas.
So, when they got the permit from Sheikh Yassin, they went to her, told her the story, her husband, and she understood that she has no choice.
She knew she's going to be killed anyway.
[narrator.]
Hamas maintains the position that Riyashi acted on her own free will.
They simply supported and gave her permission.
Jihad is now everyone's duty, male and female.
The Shin Bet focus on those responsible and actively recruiting for even more suicide campaigns against Israel.
Among them are Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Riyashi's lover, the Hamas commander who they believe sent her to her death.
So when you are dealing with a terror organization like that, you have to be very, very tough, very accurate, and very direct with your treatment.
That's why I always kept saying, and I keep saying it till today, "Thousands of mothers of terrorists will cry, but not my mom.
" That's my philosophy in a nutshell.
[narrator.]
For Israel, a direct link between the political leadership of Hamas and the attack on the Erez Crossing marked a clear opportunity for Israel to target those in charge.
America calls this controversial method of securing a country "targeted killings.
" The problem with the Second Intifada was that the methods used against us were much more military in nature.
It wasn't stones and Molotov cocktails.
It was bombs, rockets, mortars, machine guns, grenades, and any other type of military equipment, which were being used in huge numbers all over the place.
So, it actually looked like, felt like, and attacked like a war, but the people on the other side weren't part of the military of a state.
All of the rules were developed for state versus state warfare.
So what we actually had to do was to adapt these rules to state versus non-state entity warfare.
[crowd shouting.]
[narrator.]
The rules change, allowing Israel to target combatants of another state under five strict conditions, and only with the approval from the highest political levels.
In this case, prior approval from the former Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon.
[Reisner.]
So, those five conditions, we made them up.
We developed them ourselves.
They didn't exist before.
And we use them to explain why we think targeted killing, in the context of state versus non-state entity conflict, makes sense.
[narrator.]
Along with the suicide attacks, Sheikh Yassin is also believed to have given approval for launching Qassam rockets against Israeli cities.
He makes public declarations calling for the continuation of the armed struggle against Israel, and for an intensification of the terrorist campaign.
Prime Minister Sharon calls Yassin "the mastermind of Palestinian terror.
" [interviewer in Arabic.]
What do you think of the future for Israel? [Yassin in Arabic.]
[narrator.]
Determined to stop more attacks against Israel, Prime Minister Sharon approves a ruling for a targeted killing Sheikh Yassin is officially marked for death.
As word hits the street that Israel has Sheikh Yassin in their sights, Hamas tightens security around him.
[Dichter.]
They tried to hide him very, very much.
They kept him in shelters, and they moved him every day to another place.
They tried to trick us.
But, finally, when you are determined enough, and have good sources, and good tools, and you know the job So, determination brings you to the end, or brings him to the end.
[narrator.]
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin's bodyguards escort him out from an early-morning prayer session at a mosque close to his home unaware that an Apache A-64 helicopter has locked onto his location.
Before anyone can react the Apache fires three Hellfire missiles at their target, killing Yassin, his bodyguards, and nine bystanders.
Sheikh Yassin is, by far, the most significant Palestinian militant killed by Israel.
Two hundred thousand people take to the streets of the Gaza Strip for Yassin's funeral, as Israeli forces declare a national alert.
Because this was the most prominent Hamas leader, the founder of Hamas, the ideologist of Hamas, it was quite clear, Israeli aircraft kills Yassin.
The motivation to retaliate was very, very high.
[narrator.]
For Israeli security services, the operation is seen as a significant blow to Hamas.
But the assassination isn't met with a positive response by all.
You can say that the United States is deeply concerned about deeply troubled by this morning's actions, that the event, in our view, increases tension, and doesn't help our efforts to resume progress towards peace.
[narrator.]
As the world debates the risks and consequences of targeted killings, Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi is announced the new head of Hamas.
Sometimes you get rid of the enemy you know, you find yourself with someone even worse.
[crowd shouting.]
[narrator.]
Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, nicknamed "The Lion of Palestine," calls for retaliation, and the destruction of Israel.
[in Arabic.]
Sharon and the leaders of the Zionist gangs will not enjoy security, they will never in their lives enjoy security, because the land of Palestine is the land of the Muslim waqf.
And we will not allow the occupiers to destroy our land.
We will fight them everywhere, in every neighborhood, and we will teach them a lesson in coping.
[narrator.]
In a speech to the military wing of Hamas, Rantisi declares, "The door is open for you to strike all places, all the time, and using all means.
" [Dichter.]
We took it into account.
We knew it was going to cause something different.
[narrator.]
Hamas militants answer the call of Rantisi to retaliate, and Israel sees another bloody spike in attacks.
Less than one month after the assassination of Sheikh Yassin, Israel goes after a new target.
As Hamas leader Rantisi, his bodyguard, and 27-year-old son Mohammed drive a car through the streets of Gaza, Hellfire missiles rain down from an Israeli Apache helicopter, immediately killing all occupants in the car.
Israeli security services brace themselves for Hamas retaliation, and all resources go towards stopping the next attack.
But, sadly, another set of bombers slip through to strike in Israel.
[explosion.]
Two suicide bombings occur almost simultaneously aboard commuter buses in the city of Beersheba, killing 16 and injuring more than 100.
Hamas states the attack is a revenge for the assassination of Rantisi and Yassin.
But, overall, attacks begin to fall.
The limiting factor of Hamas in conducting terrorist attacks, severe terrorist attacks, was very limited at that specific period of time as an outcome of the Israeli counter-terrorism measures.
[narrator.]
Less than two months after Reem Riyashi detonated herself at Erez Crossing, two Hamas leaders are dead.
Although her true motivation for the suicide attack may never be known, her affair the Shin Bet claim she had with a known operational commander for the Hamas military wing cannot be ignored.
The Shin Bet confirm intelligence that indicate new plots against Israel involving the commander are being hatched.
With no real opportunity to bring him to justice and detain him in Israel, the Shin Bet decide their next best option is to go after him on his own turf.
In fighting terrorists, the first best is to detain terrorists, the second best is to kill them.
[narrator.]
The operation starts with a clever plan to lure him into a trap.
The Hamas commander receives a phone call from a woman claiming to have reached his number by accident.
He believes she's an Israeli Arab woman.
They flirt and she seduces him into taking more calls.
They continue the conversations for the next two months, but what the commander doesn't know is that the woman on the other end of the line is a Shin Bet agent scheming to gain his trust.
In the beginning it was regular calls, regular talks, although we knew his soft point.
We knew his weakness: women.
[narrator.]
As the commander becomes more comfortable with her, she begins to send him gifts, among them, a box of tracksuits which helps Israeli agents identify those involved.
This is a long-term strategy.
The phone calls continue over the course of a year, becoming more and more intimate as time goes on.
[Dichter.]
And once the line is strong enough, you start putting margins and products on it.
Small gift that doesn't create any threat.
Then a bigger one, then gifts that obey his requests.
It's called circular training.
We didn't send him a voucher for Macy's.
You have to work very carefully, so he will be sure that it's his decisions, that he controls everything.
[inaudible.]
We've been waiting up until things will get warmer.
When it started to get warmer, and we saw that, if I may say, he fell in love with her, although he never saw her, but by phone calls.
We started to hear more and more talks about "Maybe we can get married.
" [narrator.]
The Shin Bet operation is playing out as they hoped.
They quickly plan for the end game.
This time with another gift containing an extra special surprise.
[Dichter.]
And he got it.
And he went to his room, closed the door, and called her.
And she told him, "Open the box.
" He opened the box, and it was very impressive to see the golden dome.
A model that was built very nice.
We paid for it, a few hundred of shekel.
It was beautiful.
And he told her, "I appreciate very much the way that you decided to celebrate our year anniversary of getting together.
" Said, "I know, but that's not the personal gift I wanted to give you.
" She told him, "Twist the dome.
" He started to twist the dome.
He opened it, and then he saw, inside, underwear.
He asked her, "Wow.
I appreciate it so much.
" Said, "No, that's not the end of it.
If you want to smell the special perfume I use, smell it.
" They have to be very, very accurate with the timing, we cannot make any mistake.
[narrator.]
As he leans in, the gift containing an explosive device is remotely detonated.
When he was close enough to the bomb we detonated it.
The Shin Bet never disclose the name of the commander, but they are sure they have eliminated one of the top Hamas operatives actively plotting against Israel.
If I would have remembered all the names of the archterrorists I would forget the good guys.
I prefer to forget the bad guys' names and to remember the good guys.
[narrator.]
Since World War II, Israel has assassinated more terrorist leaders than any other country in the Western world.
It is the first state to publicly outline a policy of liquidation and preemptive targeted killings as a form of military attacks to contain terror.
By the end of the Second Intifada, almost 300 terrorist organization members, along with 150 civilian bystanders, had been killed in targeted killings.
[Ganor.]
The arguments were that, how can a state like that conduct a certain type of capital punishment on those terrorists without even giving them the chance to defend themselves, to come to court, to give other evidence, to prove that they're innocent, or whatever.
This seems to be immoral and unjust method.
And the position was the following one Targeted killing is not being used by Israel as a certain type of punishment.
Targeted killing is a certain type of warfare within this irregular warfare of countering terrorism, which is legitimate only in what we call the ticking-bomb situation.
[narrator.]
For the Shin Bet and Israeli Government, Sheikh Yassin, Rantisi, and the Hamas commander are all ticking bombs, directing, funding, recruiting, and giving the green light to attack and kill Israelis.
[Issacharoff.]
The Prime Minister back then, Ariel Sharon, decided to go into war against the suicide attacks, whatever the cost will be.
And this is when Avi Dichter, as the head of Shin Bet, former head of Shin Bet, gave a speech to his people, telling them, "We know that it's like emptying the sea with a spoon, but at the end of the day, we will win that.
" And Avi Dichter was right.
They managed to empty the sea with a spoon.
[Dichter.]
The barrel of terrorists has a bottom, it's not a bottomless barrel.
You don't need to find the last terrorist in the barrel in order to dry it, but you need to reach a critical mass of terrorists, beginning with the archterrorists, up until you block it.
[narrator.]
The Second Intifada officially ends on February 8, 2005.
By that time, Israel sees a significant decrease in suicide attacks.
Although the United States condemned targeted killings for decades, they came to embrace the strategy for themselves.
Former President Obama approved ten times as many air strikes than his predecessor, George W.
Bush, mainly by drones in Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen.
Today, President Trump is working to overturn Obama-era limits on these strikes.
[Reisner.]
In the short term, targeted killing is extremely effective, because it takes out a high-profile target, which has been an ongoing threat to you.
And, as a result, you decrease a short-term threat.
In the long term, any tool, including targeted killing, also continues the cycle of violence, regenerates leadership, and usually also creates a process of extremism.
In other words, the more the fight goes on, people become more extreme.
[Ganor.]
If you ask me, and probably other Israeli expert, "What is the one measure which is more important than anything else?" Intelligence, intelligence, intelligence.
And I think that Israel have gathered a lot of capabilities of collecting intelligence, processing that in a way that gives the ability to react, and to prevent terrorist attacks before they occur.
[Dichter.]
Sharing modus operandi, tools.
There are not too much secrets amongst allies in fighting terrorists.
That's what I did when I was head of Shin Bet, with CIA, FBI, MI6, MI5, BND, whatever We have to share with them information.
They could learn something through our experience.
I remember, they used to tell me, "Avi, we don't have suicide bombers.
" I said, "That's what we said up until 1993.
" [narrator.]
In January 2006, Hamas wins the Palestinian parliamentary elections to establish a Palestinian National Unity Government in Gaza.
[Ganor.]
As an outcome of the fact that Hamas took over this territory, all the enormous resources that they got from the international community they decided that they would take this money in order to purchase, and to buy military weapons, in order to create missiles that would be used against Israel.
[shouting.]
[in Arabic.]
United, we will cut off the head of the enemy.
[Reisner.]
At the end of the day, we're looking at an organization which is way more powerful than what you would normally think about a terrorist organization, because it has territory, it has funds, a lot of people who can enlist in the organization.
[narrator.]
After winning power, Hamas refuse international terms to renounce violence and allow Israel the right to exist.
As a result, the US, EU, and Israel do not recognize the Hamas government, and instead support Palestinian President Abbas' government in the West Bank.
The outcome is that the average Palestinian is living in poverty, is living in misery is find it very difficult to supply the basic needs to his family, to his kids.
[narrator.]
While so much of the Palestinians' and Israelis' history has involved bloodshed, terror, and instability, and world leaders continue to work towards a resolution, the region remains even more volatile and unstable.
In rhetoric reminiscence of his early predecessors, new Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar calls for the violent destruction of Israel.
[Sinwar speaking Arabic.]
[narrator.]
During what protestors call the March of Return, thousands of Palestinian citizens abide Hamas' call to attack the border with Israel, to protest the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to move its embassy there.
As protestors throw rocks, burn kites, and throw Molotov cocktails and other bombs towards the fence, Israeli soldiers respond by firing tear gas and bullets.
Sixty protestors are killed, including 52 Hamas terrorists, and six children brought to the border to be used as human shields.
[in Arabic.]
Our people sacrificed 60 martyrs on May 14, as well as 3,000 wounded.
They were used to sign our people's rejection of the reckless decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem [continues speaking.]
[Issacharoff.]
I think that, at the end of the day, a nation that wants to live is much stronger than a nation that is making the dead people their ambition in life.
Making the dead people their heroes.
Making the dead people a kind of a target to reach one day.
So, I think that, at the end of the day, a society that glorifies life and not death this is a society that will prevail and win.
[Ganor.]
I think that if you have poor and depressed neighbors, it's not a good sign for you as their neighbor, as well.
Not just from the moral perspective, which I can identify with those poor people, but also as a neighbor.
But, unfortunately, the responsibility is first and foremost on the shoulder of Hamas leaders and their supporters.
It could've been different.
It can be different in the future.
[narrator.]
As the region grapples with yet more bloodshed, the Israeli public may lean more heavily on their security services for protection.
[Reisner.]
The Shabak faces, I think, a dual-edged sword.
On the one hand, every terrorist attack they do not prevent is a failure, because the Israeli public has become used to the fact that we are very good at prevention.
[narrator.]
Since its inception in 1948 with the declaration of Israel's independence, the Shin Bet and other organizations within the Israeli Security Agency has successfully thwarted tens of thousands of attacks against Israeli targets.
[Reisner.]
We have Iron Dome against rockets and missiles, and we have Shabak against terrorists.
The Israeli public is used to the fact that its shield is very effective.