The Unit Has a Name. Now the World Knows It.

For more than two and a half years, Israel ran one of the most technically sophisticated manhunts in modern intelligence history — in secret. That secrecy ended Wednesday.

The Wall Street Journal published a detailed exposé on NILI — a Hebrew acronym for Netzach Yisrael Lo Yeshaker, meaning "The Eternal One of Israel Does Not Lie." Ynet News, drawing on an exclusive interview with Yedioth Ahronoth's weekend magazine, confirmed the unit's existence and got its officers talking on the record for the first time.

The disclosure included names, methods, and confirmed kills previously unknown to the public.

Who Built It and Who Runs It

NILI was assembled by Israel's Shin Bet internal security service and military intelligence in the immediate aftermath of Oct. 7. Earlier reporting, cited by Breitbart, indicated Mossad — Israel's foreign intelligence service — was looped in from the beginning, signaling the operation would reach well beyond Gaza's borders.

The unit operates out of a small room at Southern Command, according to Ynet News. It is led by an officer identified only as Capt. A. His analyst, Sgt. S., described the investigative process as painstaking — sometimes running 10 months per target just to build a prosecutable intelligence case.

"The work was relatively long," Sgt. S. told Yedioth Ahronoth. "Both in incriminating him and tying him to the event, and in narrowing down and locating his whereabouts."

The Methods Are Cutting-Edge and Cold-Blooded

Hamas filmed its own massacre. The videos the terrorists uploaded themselves became an intelligence resource for Israel.

According to the Wall Street Journal, NILI ran facial recognition software against those videos. That was combined with intercepted communications, cellphone location data, social media footage, and interrogations of Gazan detainees captured during the ongoing war.

Israeli officials told the Journal that no target is approved without at least two independent pieces of evidence directly tying that individual to the Oct. 7 assault. The process is methodical, not random.

Former senior Shin Bet official Shalom Ben Hanan told the Jerusalem Post the operation is also designed to send a message — a deterrent to anyone who might consider a similar attack in the future. That quote is cited in NDTV's coverage.

Real Names. Real Kills.

NILI's work has already produced confirmed results. Several are documented.

Ahmed Shaer was filmed in the now-iconic video pushing and pulling Avinatan Or away from his girlfriend Noa Argamani as she was taken hostage on a motorcycle, screaming. Argamani was held captive for 245 days before Israeli forces rescued her. According to Ynet News, NILI identified Shaer as a target and eventually located him after a months-long surveillance effort. He is now dead.

Both men seen restraining Avinatan Or in that video were later killed in separate Israeli airstrikes, according to NDTV.

Ali Sami Muhammad Shakra, a Hamas Nukhba Force platoon commander, was tied to the kidnapping of American-Israeli hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alon Ohel, Eliya Cohen, and Or Levy near the Nova music festival. He's on the list, per Breitbart's reporting from the Journal.

Abd al-Rahman Ammar Hassan Khudari, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative accused of participating in the massacre at Kibbutz Nir Oz, was killed in April.

Then there's the tractor driver. A Palestinian filmed driving a tractor through the Gaza border fence on Oct. 7 was killed in an Israeli strike more than a year later while walking through Gaza on a narrow city street. According to the Wall Street Journal, NILI tracked him that entire time. He made the list. He didn't survive it.

"No Participant Is Too Insignificant"

That quote came from Israeli officials speaking to the Wall Street Journal. It's the operational philosophy of NILI in five words.

The database contains thousands of names — Hamas Nukhba commandos, additional Palestinians identified as crossing into Israel that day, and senior figures who planned and orchestrated the assault. News18 reports the campaign spans not just Gaza, but Lebanon and Iran as well.

Many names have already been crossed off, according to NDTV.

International Coverage and Context

Most international coverage is framing NILI through an "ethics of targeted killing" lens — lots of discussion about legality, proportionality, and "cycles of violence." News18 mentions "legal and ethical debates" as a central concern.

Every target must meet a two-source evidentiary standard. The individuals being hunted were filmed committing the attacks.

Also notable in coverage: the American angle. Hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin and others held near the Nova site were American-Israeli citizens. The specific Hamas commander linked to their kidnapping is named in U.S.-allied intelligence files. That makes NILI's work directly relevant to American national security interests.

The Hunt Continues

Israel built a dedicated intelligence unit, gave it thousands of names, and told it to work until every name is resolved — by capture or by strike. More than two and a half years in, it's still running.

Former Israeli military intelligence official Michael Milstein told NDTV: "Revenge is an important part of the discourse."

The tractor driver didn't escape it. Neither did the man who grabbed Noa Argamani's boyfriend. And according to NILI's commander, the mission isn't close to finished.