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Targeted deputy commander

IDF airs footage of strike on Hamas’s No. 3, but says still unclear if he was killed

Military spokesman confirms fighter jets struck tunnel where Marwan Issa and other terror commanders were hiding early Sunday; says no hostages held in the area.

By Emanuel Fabian March 12, 2024, 11:45 am Edit
Left: Marwan Issa, the deputy head of Hamas’s military wing, circled in a photo circulated on social media in 2015. The photo or its source could not be immediately verified. Right: An IDF strike early March 10 on a tunnel where Issa was believed to be hiding. (The Times of Israel: Social media; Israel Defense Forces)
Left: Marwan Issa, the deputy head of Hamas’s military wing, circled in a photo circulated on social media in 2015. The photo or its source could not be immediately verified. Right: An IDF strike early March 10 on a tunnel where Issa was believed to be hiding. (The Times of Israel: Social media; Israel Defense Forces)

(THE TIMES OF ISRAEL) After a day of speculation, the Israel Defense Forces’ top spokesman on Monday confirmed that the military targeted the deputy commander of Hamas’s military wing in the central Gaza Strip a day earlier, but said it did not have enough information that would confirm whether the hit was successful.

Since the strike early Sunday morning in central Gaza’s Nuseirat, reports circulated claiming that both Israel and Hamas were looking into the possibility that Marwan Issa had been killed.

“We are still evaluating the results of the strike, and we have not yet received final confirmation,” IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a press conference Monday evening, airing footage of the bombing.

“During the night between Saturday and Sunday, in a joint IDF and Shin Bet operation, fighter jets struck an underground site belonging to senior Hamas officials in central Gaza, in the Nuseirat area,” Hagari said.

He said the underground complex was used mainly by two Hamas officials: Issa and Ghazi Abu Tama’a, the latter of whom is a former head of Hamas’s Central Camps Brigade and is currently tasked with being responsible “for all of Hamas’s weapons in Gaza.”

Issa is considered the number three in the terror organization in Gaza and serves as the deputy of Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas’s military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. Together with Hamas’s leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, they are believed to have masterminded the group’s October 7 massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war.

Together with Issa and Abu Tama’a in the tunnel were other Hamas terrorists, Hagari said, adding that, according to the IDF’s intelligence, no hostages were held in the area.

“When we know for certain, we will update the public,” he said regarding the speculative reports of Issa’s death.

Hagari said the strike, like many others in the Gaza Strip targeting the terror group’s leadership, was planned many days in advance.

“We will continue to chase down Hamas’s leaders and anyone who was involved in the October 7 massacre, and not only in Gaza. We have a lot of determination. Eliminating Hamas’s senior officials is a main effort in the war,” he added.

Hamas was also trying to determine whether Issa was killed in the strike, Hebrew media reported earlier Monday. Reports said five Palestinians were killed in the strike.

War erupted when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists burst into Israel by air, land and sea, killing close to 1,200 people and kidnapping another 253 to Gaza, where more than 100 are still held hostage.

Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel responded with a wide-scale ground and air campaign that the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said has now killed more than 31,000 people. These figures cannot be independently verified, and are believed to include both civilians and Hamas members killed in Gaza, including as a consequence of terror groups’ own rocket misfires. The IDF says it has killed over 13,000 terror operatives in Gaza since the war started, in addition to some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.

 

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