Israel has reportedly assembled a sweeping intelligence database identifying every Palestinian believed to have participated in the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led massacre and is systematically working to hunt down each suspect for arrest or elimination, according to a new Wall Street Journal report citing Israeli officials familiar with the operation.

The report says the classified list includes Hamas commanders who planned the assault, as well as Gazans who physically crossed into Israel during the invasion, when approximately 1,200 people — mostly civilians — were murdered and 251 others kidnapped in what became the deadliest slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust.

According to the report, Israeli intelligence agencies built the list by combing through massive amounts of visual evidence uploaded online by terrorists during and after the attack. Analysts reportedly used facial recognition technology to identify suspects appearing in videos and photographs, while also reviewing intercepted phone calls made by those who infiltrated Israel that day.

Israeli officials told the newspaper that names are only added once intelligence services gather at least two separate pieces of evidence tying a person to atrocities committed during the October 7 assault.

The effort has reportedly continued even after the ceasefire that took effect in Gaza in October. The report pointed to last week’s Israeli strike that killed Hamas Gaza chief Izz al-Din al-Haddad as one example of the ongoing campaign.

According to the report, the operation began immediately after the massacre and has already resulted in “hundreds” of names being removed from the list. Israeli officials reportedly said that even individuals with no formal terror affiliation who independently joined the attack remain targets for Israeli intelligence.

One example described in the report involved a Gazan man who was filmed driving a tractor through the border fence during the initial breach into Israel. Israeli forces reportedly located and killed him nearly two years later. The report did not say whether the man personally carried out violence during the massacre.

The report also detailed operations targeting senior Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives years after their involvement in the attack.

Among those mentioned was Ali Sami Muhammad Shakra, identified as a platoon commander in Hamas’s elite Nukhba Force who allegedly participated in the kidnapping of hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alon Ohel, Eliya Cohen, and Or Levy from a roadside shelter near Re’im.

After Shakra was killed alongside several Hamas operatives last month, the IDF released images purportedly showing him leaning out of a vehicle window while entering Israel during the October 7 assault. The military attached a one-word caption to the images: “Eliminated.”

Another figure highlighted in the report was Abd al-Rahman Ammar Hassan Khudari, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative allegedly involved in the massacre at Kibbutz Nir Oz during the October 7 attack. Israel reportedly killed him in April.

The report noted that while international law permits combatants involved in attacks to be targeted, legal standards generally require the existence of an imminent threat when strikes occur long after the original assault. Without such a threat, critics argue the killings could constitute extrajudicial executions carried out in retaliation for past acts.

Israeli military officials have maintained that operatives targeted in Gaza — including those connected to October 7 — either posed an “imminent threat to troops” operating nearby, were actively planning future attacks, or had crossed what Israel refers to as the “Yellow Line,” marking current IDF-controlled zones inside Gaza.

Rachel VanLandingham, a former judge advocate in the U.S. Air Force and an expert in military law, told the newspaper that although Israel’s campaign “feels retributive,” there is “nothing inherently wrong with prioritizing people on a target list as long as they’re belligerents.”

Israeli officials have reportedly compared the campaign to Israel’s long-running operation following the murder of Israeli athletes during the Munich massacre at the 1972 Olympics in Germany, when Mossad agents spent years tracking down those responsible.

“It will take time, just as it did after Munich,” Mossad director David Barnea said in 2024. “But our hands will reach them, wherever they are.”

Responding to the report, a Hamas official claimed Israel’s actions are “nothing but an extension of the policy of extrajudicial executions and systematic killing that Israel has practiced against the Palestinian people for decades.” Hamas itself has long been accused of carrying out executions of dissidents in Gaza and engaging in violent clashes with rival Palestinian factions.

Some analysts defended Israel’s approach, arguing that the realities of Middle Eastern conflict and the nature of the enemy Israel faces have shaped the country’s response.

“In the Middle East, revenge is an important part of the discourse. It is about how serious anyone in your environment sees you,” said Michael Milstein.

“Unfortunately, this is the language of this neighborhood,” he told the newspaper.