Israel has reportedly assembled a detailed intelligence list of thousands of people who took part in the October 7 invasion and is working to arrest or kill each one of them.
By World Israel News Staff
Israel has built a detailed intelligence list of thousands of people it says took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack and is working to kill or arrest each one, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
The campaign is being led by a special task force known as NILI, a Hebrew acronym meaning “The Eternal One of Israel will not lie,” according to the report.
The unit was created after the invasion to track those who planned, commanded or directly participated in the massacres and abductions in southern Israel.
The Oct. 7 attack killed about 1,200 people in Israel and saw around 250 hostages taken to Gaza.
Israel has since used facial recognition, intercepted communications, battlefield footage, interrogations and human intelligence to identify suspects and add them to the list, the Journal reported.
The effort has continued even after the US-brokered ceasefire, according to the report, with Israeli forces using later exchanges of fire in Gaza to strike men identified as Oct. 7 participants.
The Journal said targets have included both commanders and lower-level participants, including people accused of helping move hostages or joining the assault after the border was breached.
The IDF and Shin Bet have publicly announced several such killings in recent months. In February, they said they killed Muhammad Issam Hassan al-Habil, a Hamas cell commander accused of murdering IDF Cpl. Noa Marciano while she was held captive in Gaza after being abducted from the Nahal Oz base on Oct. 7.
In October 2025, the military and Shin Bet said they killed eight terrorists involved in the Oct. 7 massacre and hostage-taking, including men linked to the abduction of Noa Argamani, Avinatan Or and Eitan Mor from the Nova music festival.
Families of some hostages welcomed the strikes and urged Israel to keep pursuing attackers still at large.
The task force’s work reaches beyond Gaza, the Journal reported, and has included targets in Lebanon and Iran.
The campaign has drawn comparisons to Israel’s effort to hunt down those behind the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, though the current list is far larger and relies on more advanced surveillance and battlefield intelligence.
Israeli officials cited in the report defended the killings as wartime targeting of combatants who carried out or supported the Oct. 7 assault.
The report comes as Israel and Hamas remain locked in a fragile postwar standoff in Gaza, with Hamas refusing to disarm and Israel continuing operations against armed cells.
The report said the NILI task force has been reduced since the ceasefire but remains active, passing intelligence to military commanders responsible for strikes in Gaza.
