Marwan Issa, Hamas’ deputy army commander within the Gaza Strip and the presumed mastermind of the Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel, was confirmed lifeless by a senior U.S. official on Monday after an Israeli airstrike greater than every week in the past. It was carried out.
U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan advised reporters that Issa, considered one of Hamas’ most senior figures, had been killed. Maj. Gen. Daniel Hagari introduced on March 11 that Israeli warplanes had focused Mr. Issa and one other senior Hamas official in an underground facility in central Gaza.
Israel’s most wished man, Issa’s demise makes him the oldest Hamas chief to be killed in Gaza for the reason that begin of the struggle. Israeli officers have characterised the assault as a breakthrough of their marketing campaign to wipe out Hamas management within the Gaza Strip.
But specialists warned that his demise wouldn’t have a devastating affect on Hamas’s management. Israel has killed political and army leaders of Hamas up to now, however they have been rapidly changed.
Let’s take a more in-depth take a look at Mr. Issa and what his demise means for Hamas and its management.
What was Mr. Issa’s function in Hamas?
Issa, who was 58 or 59 on the time of his demise, had been a deputy to Mohammed Deif, the elusive chief of Hamas’s army wing, the Qassam Brigades, since 2012. Issa took over the function after the assassination of one other prime commander, Ahmed al-Jabari.
Issa served in each Hamas’ army council and the Gaza political workplace overseen by Yahya Sinwar, the group’s highest-ranking official within the enclave. Issa is described by Palestinian analysts and former Israeli safety officers as a key strategist who performed a key function as a liaison between Hamas’ army and political leaders.
Salah al-Din al-Awaudeh, a Palestinian analyst near Hamas, described Issa’s place inside Hamas as “a part of the entrance strains of the army management.”
Maj. Gen. Tamir Heyman, former head of Israeli army intelligence, stated Issa was concurrently Hamas’s “minister of protection,” deputy army commander and “strategic thoughts.”
What does his demise imply for the group?
Experts described Mr. Issa as an essential affiliate of Mr. Deif and Mr. Sinwar, however stated his demise was not a menace to the group’s survival.
“There’s at all times a alternative,” Awadeh stated. “I do not assume the assassination of a member of the army will have an effect on its operations.”
Michael Milshteyn, a former Israeli army intelligence officer and skilled on Palestinian points, acknowledged that whereas Issa’s demise was a major blow to the Qassam Brigades, it was not “the tip of the world” for Hamas.
“He had loads of expertise,” Milstein stated. “His demise is a giant loss for Hamas, however it isn’t a collapse-inducing loss and won’t have long-term results. They will overcome it inside every week or two.”
Milstein stated that despite the fact that Issa’s opinions have been valued on the highest ranges of Hamas, the truth that he didn’t instantly command fighters meant that his demise wouldn’t depart an enormous gap in Hamas’ operations. I added which means.
How is he portrayed?
Issa is a little-known member of Hamas’s higher echelons, preserving a low profile and barely making public appearances.
Gerhard Konrad, a former German intelligence officer who met Issa greater than a decade in the past, described him as a “decided and quiet” man with out charisma. “He wasn’t very eloquent, however he knew what to say and he was straight to the purpose,” Conrad stated in an interview.
Conrad stated he met with Issa, al-Jabari and fellow Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar about 10 instances in Gaza City between 2009 and 2011. The males met as a part of an effort to dealer a prisoner change between Israel and Hamas.
“He was a grasp of information on prisoners,” Conrad stated of Issa. “He had all of the names to barter.”
But Mr. Conrad stated it was clear from the time that Mr. Issa was a subordinate of Mr. Aljabari. “He was type of the chief of employees,” he stated.
Issa’s profile rose after al-Jabari’s assassination, however he nonetheless saved a low profile. Few pictures of Mr. Issa are within the public area.
Analyst Awoude described Issa as somebody who prefers to “stay within the shadows” and barely provides media interviews.
In a type of uncommon interviews, Issa spoke about his function within the oblique negotiations that resulted in Israel exchanging greater than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners of struggle for one Israeli soldier in 2021. Private First Class Gilad Shalit and his hopes for a future battle with Israel.
“Even if the Palestinian resistance is monitored 24/7 by the enemy, it’s going to shock the enemy,” he advised Al Jazeera on the time.
In one other interview with a Hamas publication in 2005, Issa praised the militants who attacked Israeli settlements and army bases, calling their actions “heroic” and “superior actions.” .
What is thought about his adolescence?
Mr. Issa was born in 1965 within the Breiji district of central Gaza, however his household is from what’s now Israel’s Ashkelon district.
Awaoudeh stated he had been a member of Hamas for many years, an extremist group that tracks Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel.
Admiral Hagari stated Mr. Issa helped plan the Hamas-led assault on October 7. Milshteyn stated Issa is believed to have deliberate operations aimed toward infiltrating Israeli settlements in the course of the second intifada within the 2000s.
Corrections have been made to
March 18, 2024
:
A earlier model of this text incorrectly listed the previous Israeli army intelligence chief’s final identify. He’s Tamir Heyman, not Heyman.
How to deal with corrections
— Adam Rasgon studies from Jerusalem