The following is a list of alleged and confirmed assassinations reported to have been conducted by the State of Israel. It includes attempts on notable persons who were reported to have been specifically targeted by the various Israeli security, intelligence and law enforcement agencies.
According to Eyal Weizman, 'targeted assassinations have become the most significant and frequent form of Israeli military attack', and serve not only to contain terror but as a 'political tool' to control Palestinian territories Israel has otherwise withdrawn from. In response to protests over the number of civilians killed in targeting operations, and the refusal of a number of pilots to engage in such missions in 2003, Israel set up groups to minimize collateral damage in 2003 to establish acceptable levels of damage to bystanders. In 2006 'focused lethality munitions', missiles with intense but highly localized explosive were introduced to this end, and in November a legal committee was set up to rule on assassinations.
There is no clear definition of "Targeted killing" under international law. The Supreme Court of Israel, in response to a suit on the practice, mainly regarded actions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, ruled on 14 December 2006 that such actions took place in an 'international armed conflict' but that the "terrorists", as civilians, lacked combatant status under international law. Yet they were, in the court's view, civilians participating directly in hostilities, which would mean they lose their immunity. It also ruled, following a precedent set forth by the European Court of Human Rights in its McCann and Others v United Kingdom judgement, that a 'law of proportionality', balancing military necessity with humanity, must apply. Assassination were permitted if ('strong and persuasive information' concerning the target's identity existed; if the mission served to curtail terror; and if other techniques, such as attempting to arrest the target, would gravely endanger soldiers' lives.
Nils Melzer in his 2006 study Targeted Killing in International Law defines targeted killings in terms of five criteria, summed up as 'the use of lethal force attributable to a subject of international law with the intent, premeditation and deliberation to kill individually selected persons who are not in the physical custody of those targeting them.' Before 2001 Israel denied it practiced or has a policy of conducting extrajudicial executions.
The term itself gained widespread currency only after Israel went public concerning its policy regarding alleged terrorists in the Palestinian territories. Early into the Al Aqsa Intifada, it became the first state to publicly outline a policy of “liquidation” and “preemptive targeted killing,” when two female bystanders were killed during an operation to kill a Palestinian militant, Hussein ‘Abayat, on 9 November 2000. Killings in the past were often premised on revenge for earlier crimes, and required a quasi-judicial commission to convict the target of culpability before action was taken. The policy, re-introduced by Ariel Sharon in the face of suicide bombings, no longer took evidence of potential involvement by the target in future attacks on Israel as decisive, and the decision was left to the discretion of the Prime Minister and Shin Bet.
According to the former Legal Advisor to the State Department Judge Abraham Sofaer:
...killings in self-defense are no more "assassinations" in international affairs than they are murders when undertaken by our police forces against domestic killers. Targeted killings in self-defense have been authoritatively determined by the federal government to fall outside the assassination prohibition.
A state engaged in such activities must however, Sofaer concluded, openly acknowledge its responsibility and accept accountability for mistakes made.
This characterization is criticized by many, including Amnesty International.
B'tselem has calculated that between 2002 and May 2008, at least 387 Palestinians died as a result of Israeli targeted killings, of which 234 were the targets, and the rest collateral casualties. The majority of Israeli targeted killings have taken place in Area A of the West Bank lying within the jurisdiction of the Palestinian National Authority. Some of killings listed below have been denied by Israel. Most fall within a series of campaigns, including Operation Wrath of God (launched in response to the 1972 Munich massacre), Israeli actions in the wake of the al-Aqsa Intifada (2000–), and strikes during the 2008–09 Gaza War. Gaza, according to Eyal Weizman, has now become 'the world's largest laboratory for airborne assassinations.' According to reports, as part of the long-term cease-fire terms negotiated between Israel, Hamas and other Palestinian groups to end the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, Israel pledged it would desist from its targeted killings against Palestinian terrorists and faction leaders.
The policy of targeted killings is known in Hebrew as "focused foiling" (Hebrew: סיכול ממוקד sikul memukad).