No Safe Haven: Why Israel Cannot Stop Hunting The October 7 Terrorists

More than two years after October 7, Israel is sending a message to the men who participated in the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust: time will not erase what you did, distance will not protect you, and hiding behind sympathetic governments, organizations or civilian populations will not guarantee that Israel will stop looking for you.

That principle is now colliding with international criticism.

The UN Human Rights Office has challenged Israeli military conduct and targeted killings, arguing that international humanitarian and human rights law still constrain how Israel deals with those accused of atrocities. That concern cannot simply be dismissed. There is an important distinction between eliminating an active terrorist who remains part of an armed organization and killing someone solely as punishment for something he did years earlier.

But that distinction raises another question the international community rarely seems willing to answer.

What happens when those responsible for mass murder remain embedded within terrorist organizations, continue facilitating attacks, find sanctuary among sympathetic populations or organizations, and are protected by institutions that Israel has little confidence will ever bring them to justice?

That is the October 7 dilemma.

And the scale of Israel's unfinished task is enormous.

Israeli officials estimate that approximately 5,000 terrorists participated in planning or carrying out the October 7 attack or were involved afterward, including in holding hostages. According to recent Israeli reporting, roughly 2,800 people on the country's target list have now been killed. That includes approximately 1,200 terrorists killed by Israeli security forces during the original assault itself. Another roughly 300 alleged perpetrators have been captured and are awaiting judicial proceedings.

If those estimates are accurate, approximately 1,900 remain.

Israel intends to find them.

The IDF and Shin Bet have established a special joint operation known as Nili dedicated to identifying and tracking those connected to the massacre. Investigators have reportedly assembled thousands of names using an extraordinary amount of evidence: photographs, intercepted communications, intelligence from detainees and even footage recorded by the terrorists themselves. Facial-recognition technology and artificial intelligence have also reportedly been employed to help identify suspects.

Nili officers recently described the process publicly, revealing that their target database contains thousands of names. The mission is painstakingly simple: identify them, locate them and continue working through the list.

The significance extends far beyond punishment.

It is about deterrence.

October 7 represented a catastrophic collapse of Israeli deterrence. Thousands poured across the border as Hamas and other attackers assaulted communities, military positions and the Nova music festival. Approximately 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.

Hamas believed it could breach one of the world's most heavily monitored borders, massacre Israelis, seize hostages and survive the consequences.

Israel now has to convince Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran-backed militias and every other potential enemy that October 7 is not a successful model to imitate.

That requires establishing a very different lesson: participation in another October 7 will follow you for the rest of your life.

You may flee the battlefield. You may change locations. You may find people willing to protect you. But Israel will not simply forget.

History shows why that message matters. Israel has long operated according to the principle that those who murder Israelis should not assume geography or the passage of time will provide permanent immunity. The pursuit of Nazi war criminals and Israel's response to the murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics established an enduring national message: Jewish blood cannot be spilled with the expectation that eventually the world will move on.

October 7 has revived that doctrine for another generation.

The problem is compounded by Israel's deep distrust of international institutions now demanding restraint.

Consider UNRWA. After Israel accused employees of involvement in October 7, the UN's own investigation ultimately concluded that evidence in nine cases indicated the employees may have been involved in the attacks, and UNRWA terminated them.

Then there is the broader institutional record. UN bodies have repeatedly subjected Israel to extraordinary scrutiny, while the International Criminal Court has pursued cases against Israeli leaders. The UN's own Commission of Inquiry concluded that Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups deliberately killed civilians, took hostages and committed war crimes on October 7. Yet the same international system has aggressively investigated and accused Israel over its military response.

Then there was UN Secretary-General António Guterres' notorious October 2023 observation that the Hamas attacks "did not happen in a vacuum." Guterres also clearly stated that Palestinian grievances could never justify the massacre, but for many Israelis the framing reinforced an already widespread perception: when Palestinians commit atrocities, international institutions search for context; when Israel responds, they search for violations.

That perception has consequences.

If international institutions expect Israel to entrust October 7 justice to them, they must first convince Israelis that those institutions are actually capable of delivering it.

But Israel must recognize the danger on the other side as well.

A doctrine of relentless pursuit cannot become a doctrine of unlimited vengeance.

Intelligence can be wrong. Innocent people can be nearby. Operations inside another country's territory can create diplomatic crises or trigger wider wars. There is also an important legal and moral distinction between targeting someone who remains an active member of an armed terrorist organization and killing someone solely because intelligence indicates he participated in October 7 years earlier.

That distinction matters precisely because Israel's enemies and critics are watching.

Israel therefore needs both determination and restraint.

Those who participated in October 7 and remain part of terrorist organizations, continue assisting attacks or pose an ongoing security threat should not be permitted to treat sanctuary as immunity. But operations still have to distinguish combatants from civilians and justice from revenge.

For Christians, there is also a biblical principle worth remembering. Scripture repeatedly establishes government's responsibility to restrain evil. Romans 13 describes governing authority as one that "does not bear the sword in vain." Deuteronomy commands, "Justice, justice shall you pursue."

Yet biblical justice is never indiscriminate.

Israel therefore faces a difficult responsibility: pursue the guilty without abandoning the principles separating justice from vengeance.

The 1,900 still being sought is a significant number because the world is watching what happens to those remaining names.

October 7 cannot become a blueprint demonstrating that terrorists can massacre Israelis, survive long enough for international pressure to build, find sanctuary and eventually escape accountability. If that becomes the lesson, the deterrent value of everything Israel has done since October 7 will be severely weakened.

The message to Israel's enemies must be very different.

There is no safe haven for those who murder its people.