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 earlier of the month
A senior US official, Jake Sullivan, had already advised reporters that Mr. Issa, one of many highest officers in Hamas, had been killed. However earlier than Tuesday's assertion, the Israeli navy had stated solely that its warplanes had focused Mr. Issa and one other Hamas official in an underground compound in central Gaza.
Along with his dying, Mr. Issa, who had been amongst Israel's most wished males, turned essentially the most senior Hamas chief to be killed in Gaza because the 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 dying – 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 shortly changed.
Right here's a better have a look at Mr. Issa and what his dying 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 dying, 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 vital 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 Basic Tamir Hayman, the previous head of Israeli navy intelligence, stated Mr Issa was concurrently Hamas's “protection minister”, its deputy navy commander and its “strategic thoughts”.
What does his dying imply for the group?
Specialists described Mr Issa as an vital affiliate of Mr Deif and Mr Sinwar, though they stated his dying didn’t symbolize a menace to the group's survival.
“There’s all the time a substitute,” stated Mr. Awawdeh. “I don't assume the killing of any member of the navy wing could have any impact on their actions.”
Michael Milshtein, a former Israeli navy intelligence officer and professional on Palestinian affairs, stated Mr. Issa's dying was a major blow to the Qassam Brigades, though he conceded that it was not ” the tip of the world” for Hamas.
“He had a whole lot of expertise,” Mr. Milshtein stated. “His dying is a good loss for Hamas, however it isn’t a loss that may result in its collapse and it’ll not have an effect on it for a very long time. In per 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 dying 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 stated in an interview.
Mr Conrad stated he met Mr Issa, Mr al-Jabari and Mahmoud al-Zahar, one other Hamas official, about ten instances between 2009 and 2011 in Gaza Metropolis. The boys met in an effort to trade a prisoner between Israel and Hamas.
“He was the grasp of information on prisoners,” Mr. Conrad stated of Mr. Issa. “He had all of the names to be negotiated.”
Mr. Conrad, nevertheless, stated 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 stated.
It was solely after the assassination of Mr. al-Jabari that Mr. Issa's prominence grew, however he was nonetheless eager to remain out of sight. Few photographs of Mr. Issa are within the public area.
Mr. Awawdeh, the analyst, referred to as Mr. Issa a person who preferred to “stay within the shadows” and who hardly ever granted interviews to the media.
In one among 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 is going to shock the enemy,” he advised 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 formative years?
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 concerned in persecuting Palestinians believed to have collaborated with Israel, in keeping with Mr. Awawdeh.
Mr. Issa hung out in prisons operated by Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an Israeli navy spokesman, stated Mr. Issa helped plan the October 7 assault led by Hamas. Mr. Issa can be believed to have deliberate operations geared toward infiltrating Israeli settlements through the second intifada within the 2000s, Mr. Milshtein stated.
March 18, 2024
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An earlier model of this text misstated the final identify of a former Israeli navy intelligence chief. That's Tamir Hayman, not Heyman.
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