The Israeli navy has confirmed that Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of Hamas' navy wing in Gaza and the alleged mastermind of the October 7 assault in southern Israel, was killed in an Israeli airstrike this month.
A senior US official, Jake Sullivan, had already informed reporters that Mr. Issa, one of many highest officers in Hamas, had been killed. However earlier than an announcement on Tuesday, the Israeli navy had mentioned solely that its warplanes had focused Mr. Issa and one other Hamas official in an underground compound in central Gaza.
Along with his loss of life, Mr. Issa, who had been amongst Israel's most wished males, grew to become probably the most senior Hamas chief to be killed in Gaza for the reason that warfare started. Israeli officers characterised the strike as a breakthrough of their marketing campaign to take away Hamas' management in Gaza.
However specialists warned that his loss of life – which Hamas has not but acknowledged – wouldn’t have a devastating impact on the armed group's management construction. Israel has killed Hamas political and navy leaders prior to now, solely to see them rapidly changed.
Right here's a better take a look at Mr. Issa and what his loss of life means for Hamas and its management.
What was Mr. Issa's function in Hamas?
Mr. Issa, who was 58 or 59 on the time of his loss of life, had served since 2012 as deputy to Mohammed Deif, the elusive chief of the Qassam Brigades, the navy wing of Hamas. Mr. Issa took over the function after the assassination of one other commander, Ahmed al-Jabari.
Mr. Issa served each on Hamas's navy council and in its Gaza political workplace, overseen by Yahya Sinwar, the group's high official within the enclave. Mr. Issa has been described by Palestinian analysts and former Israeli safety officers as an necessary strategist who performed a key function as a hyperlink between the navy and political leaders of Hamas.
Salah al-Din al-Awawdeh, a Palestinian analyst near Hamas, described Mr Issa's place within the group as “a part of the highest rank of the management of the navy wing”.
Main Common Tamir Hayman, the previous head of Israeli navy intelligence, mentioned Mr Issa was concurrently Hamas's “protection minister”, its deputy navy commander and its “strategic thoughts”.
What does his loss of life imply for the group?
Specialists described Mr Issa as an necessary affiliate of Mr Deif and Mr Sinwar, though they mentioned his loss of life didn’t characterize a menace to the group's survival.
“There may be at all times a substitute,” mentioned Mr. Awawdeh. “I don't suppose the killing of any member of the navy wing may have any impact on their actions.”
Michael Milshtein, a former Israeli navy intelligence officer and professional on Palestinian affairs, mentioned Mr. Issa's loss of life was a big blow to the Qassam Brigades, though he conceded that it was not ” the top of the world” for Hamas.
“He had a number of expertise,” Mr. Milshtein mentioned. “His loss of life is a superb loss for Hamas, however it’s not a loss that may result in its collapse and it’ll not have an effect on it for a very long time. In every week or two, they’ll overcome it.
Mr. Milshtein added that though Mr. Issa's opinion was valued on the highest ranges of Hamas, the truth that he didn’t immediately command the fighters meant that his loss of life didn’t depart a gap within the operations of Hamas.
How was it described?
Mr. Issa was a lesser-known member of Hamas' high brass, preserving a low profile and infrequently showing in public.
Gerhard Conrad, a former German intelligence officer who met Mr. Issa greater than a decade in the past, described him as a “resolute and quiet” individual with out charisma. “He wasn't very eloquent, however he knew what they had been saying, and he was proper to the purpose,” Mr. Conrad mentioned in an interview.
Mr Conrad mentioned he met Mr Issa, Mr al-Jabari and Mahmoud al-Zahar, one other Hamas official, about 10 occasions between 2009 and 2011 in Gaza Metropolis. The lads met in an effort to trade a prisoner between Israel and Hamas.
“He was the grasp of information on prisoners,” Mr. Conrad mentioned of Mr. Issa. “He had all of the names to be negotiated.”
Mr. Conrad, nonetheless, mentioned it was obvious on the time that Mr. Issa was a subordinate of Mr. al-Jabari. “He was form of a chief of employees,” he mentioned.
Mr. Issa's prominence solely grew after Mr. al-Jabari's assassination, however he was nonetheless eager to remain out of sight. Few pictures of Mr. Issa are within the public area.
Mr. Awawdeh, the analyst, referred to as Mr. Issa a person who favored to “stay within the shadows” and who not often granted interviews to the media.
In one in all these uncommon interviews, Mr. Issa spoke in 2021 about his function within the oblique talks that resulted in Israel exchanging greater than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for a single Israeli soldier, Sgt. First Class Gilad Shalit, and his hopes for a future battle with Israel.
“Even when the resistance in Palestine is monitored by the enemy in any respect hours, it should shock the enemy,” he informed Al Jazeera on the time.
In a separate interview with a Hamas publication in 2005, Mr. Issa praised the militants who raided Israeli settlements and navy bases, calling the actions “heroic” and an “superior exercise.”
What is understood about his adolescence?
Mr. Issa was born within the Bureij space in central Gaza in 1965, however his household got here from what’s now the Ashkelon space in Israel.
A member of Hamas for many years, he was concerned with the militant group's effort to persecute Palestinians believed to have collaborated with Israel, in accordance with Mr. Awawdeh.
Mr. Issa hung out in prisons operated by Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an Israeli navy spokesman, mentioned Mr. Issa helped plan the October 7 assault led by Hamas. Mr. Issa can also be believed to have deliberate operations geared toward infiltrating Israeli settlements in the course of the second intifada within the 2000s, Mr. Milshtein mentioned.
March 18, 2024
: :
An earlier model of this text misstated the final identify of a former Israeli navy intelligence chief. That's Tamir Hayman, not Heyman.
How we deal with corrections
