Netanyahu alludes to operation which sees Hamas number three possibly killed

Marwan Issa, deputy to Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif and number three in Hamas’s high command, was targeted by Israeli airstrikes in central Gaza on Saturday, with the IDF clearing the event for publication only on Monday morning.

Issa was hiding in Nuseirat, in central Gaza. Arab media reports showed Hamas was concerned about him and that around five others were killed and ten more injured, but it is unclear whether the Hamas leader was actually killed.

The Jerusalem Post understands that, surprisingly, no hostages were injured despite regular indications that Hamas’s high command surrounded themselves with them as human shields.

Some suggested that Issa did not have hostages nearby and that the lack of clarity had to do with nearby tunnels, while others surmised that Israel may have succeeded in attacking him at a moment when he moved away from the hostages, maybe even above ground.

Generally, there seemed to be some increased confidence in Israel by Monday afternoon, when a video posted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alluded to the IDF operation.

“We are on our way to complete victory,” he said, adding, “We have already killed number four in the Hamas; three, two, and one are on the way.”

“We will reach everyone,” he concluded.

The number four to whom Netanyahu alluded was Hamas’s deputy chief outside of Gaza, Saleh al-Arouri, who was killed in January in a drone strike in Lebanon.

Although Netanyahu did not name al-Arouri, his video was the first and most direct confirmation to date of Israel’s involvement, though many Israeli officials have dropped hints before.

One thing that was unclear from Netanyahu’s video was how exactly he was calculating Hamas’s top seven or so leaders.

Technically, Ismail Haniyeh is Hamas’s top official, and even if one placed Gaza Chief Yahya Sinwar as No. 1, Deif as No. 2, and Issa as No. 3, it would not make sense to put al-Arouri above Haniyeh, given that he was Haniyeh’s deputy.

In addition, some view former Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal and Sinwar’s brother, Muhammad Sinwar, as potentially higher than al-Arouri.

A spokesman for Netanyahu did not clarify the issue, and it is possible that the one-through-four listing was not 100% accurate as much as it was trying to demonstrate that Israel may now have gotten two of the Hamas high command and could be close to getting more.

Other than al-Arouri and Issa, the two highest Hamas officials killed previously were two of its five brigade commanders, Ayman Nofel and Ahmad Randur, but both were below the high command level. 

Issa has represented the Hamas military brigades in its political bureau. Designated by the US State Department as a terrorist for his role in Hamas in 2019, Issa was one of the founding members of the terror group in 1987, at the beginning of the First Intifada.

Israel, as confirmed by Arab media, has accused Issa of participating in the planning of the October 7 massacre in Israel. On October 8, the European Union also added Issa and Deif to its list of designated terrorists.

Issa, as one of Hamas’s top leaders, was previously a target of Israeli airstrikes. In 2012, the IDF carried out several airstrikes in the Gaza Strip. Among those killed was Ahmed Jaabari, the former leader of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. Issa was also targeted in those strikes but survived.

In 2011, Issa was involved in negotiating the hostage-prisoner swap in which 1,027 Palestinian prisoners – among them Yahya Sinwar, the grand architect of October 7 – were released for Gilad Shalit.

When Sinwar rose to power in Hamas’s ranks in 2017, he surrounded himself with several associates, including Issa and a couple of former cellmates.

Issa was detained by the Palestinian Authority in 1997 until the eruption of the Second Intifada in 2000. He was also previously detained by Israel for five years during the First Intifada between 1987 and 1993 for his role in terrorist attacks. 

According to the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, Issa had been responsible for Hamas’s special operations unit, where he had close relations with Hamas’s leadership outside of Gaza.

Little is known about Issa’s activities before Hamas’s establishment.

Issa’s family is originally from a village south of Ashkelon, from where they fled in 1948 and settled in the center of the Gaza Strip. Issa was born in 1965 in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, according to the Counter Extremism Project.

In October, the IDF raid was conducted on his luxury home in al-Bureij, in the Gaza Strip, which contained a swimming pool, a large yard, and luxurious furniture.

IDF eliminates 15 terrorists

Separately, in central Gaza on Monday, the IDF eliminated 15 terrorists through close-quarters engagements, sniper fire, and airstrikes.

In one encounter, Israeli troops identified a terror cell carrying what were suspected to be weapons out of a Hamas military compound in the area. Following observation of the cell’s subsequent activities, an IDF aircraft strike destroyed it.

The IDF similarly eliminated other Hamas forces that were observing Israeli troops in the area.

The Israeli forces also operated in the area of Hamad in southern Gaza, where special forces units conducted raids on a number of civilian residences that were being used for terror purposes. During these raids, IDF troops arrested Hamas terrorists and found weapons, ammunition, and other military ordinances. In one operation, an anti-tank missile was launched at the soldiers. However, no injuries among IDF personnel were reported.

Later, Israeli troops identified, engaged, and killed a terrorist in close-quarters combat after he moved out of an area from where the anti-tank missile had been fired.

Off the coast of the northern portion of the Strip, Israeli naval forces also engaged terrorist operatives by targeting a vessel used by the Gaza terror organizations.

Late Monday night, IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari named Razi Abu Tamah as another very senior Hamas official who may have been killed along with Issa. 

Hagari said that previously, Abu Tamah was Hamas’s brigade commander for all of central Gaza and was currently serving as Hamas’s logistics and armaments commander for the entire Strip.

Hagari also publicly confirmed that Issa was attacked in an area of significant tunnels, that no hostages were nearby, and that extensive intelligence work was performed prior to the operation by multiple branches of both the Shin Bet and the IDF.

Finally, he said, Israel will continue to pursue Hamas’s leaders both inside and outside of Gaza.