‘Great for Netanyahu’: Will Haniyeh killing help Israeli PM politically?

The killings of senior Hamas and Hezbollah leaders could resurrect support for the embattled Israeli PM, say analysts.

Beirut, Lebanon – The assassinations of Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran and senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Lebanon this week could help Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regain domestic support as he fights for his political survival, say analysts, even though they may jeopardise hopes for the release of Israeli captives.

“The assassination of Haniyeh is great for Netanyahu’s political and security credentials,” Hugh Lovatt, an expert on Israel-Palestine for the European Council on Foreign Relations, told Al Jazeera. “That is undoubtedly a political fact.”

Israel has been wracked by internal unrest and divisions, first with months of protests over controversial judicial reforms that Netanyahu’s government pushed through, then with a growing movement critical of the prime minister’s failure to secure a ceasefire deal with Hamas that could lead to the release of captives.

This week, far-right Israelis – including ministers and members of the Knesset – reacted angrily to the arrest of soldiers accused of torturing and raping Palestinian prisoners. A mob stormed the base where the soldiers were being held. Divisions between Israel’s political and security officials have also increasingly become public.

Yet, the spate of assassinations this week could help Netanyahu shift the narrative – at least temporarily – within Israel, said the analysts.