There was no immediate comment from Hamas after an Israeli military spokesperson said Issa had been killed in an attack “two weeks ago.”
An Israeli military spokesperson announced that Hamas’s deputy military commander, Marwan Issa, was killed in an Israeli attack earlier this month.
There was no immediate comment from Hamas, the Palestinian organization that rules the Gaza Strip.
“We have checked all the information,” Israeli Maj. Gen. Daniel Hagari said in a televised statement on Tuesday.
“Marwan Issa was eliminated in a strike we conducted about two weeks ago,” he said.
The United States announced last week that Issa had been killed in an Israeli attack, but Israel had not previously confirmed his death.
The Israeli military previously announced that it targeted Issa in an airstrike on an underground facility in central Gaza between March 9th and 10th.
Issa was a deputy to Mohamed Deif, the longtime leader of Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades.
Yahya Sinwar is the top leader of Hamas in Gaza and the man who is believed to have masterminded the October 7 attack that sparked Israel’s latest attack on Gaza.
Both Mr. Shinwar and Mr. Deif are believed to be alive and in hiding in Gaza, and Israel has vowed to kill them.
Israel claims to have killed more than 13,000 Hamas fighters since the war began, but has provided no evidence to support that claim.
“Producing more leaders”
Al Jazeera’s Hamda Sarhat, reporting from occupied East Jerusalem, said Israeli officials have said since the start of the attack that they would “find and kill all Hamas leaders and all Hamas fighters on the ground.” Ta.
“It wasn’t just Gaza. It was going to be done all over the world and in countries like Lebanon, Turkey and Qatar,” Sarhat said.
Israel’s claims came a day after the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, with Palestinian health officials saying the Amid growing calls for Israel to halt nearly six months of attacks on 32,000 people.
More than 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents are internally displaced, while Israel’s severe restrictions on food, water and other aid have pushed the strip to the brink of starvation, according to the United Nations. ing.
If Israel’s claims are correct, Issa would be the most senior Hamas leader to be killed in Gaza since Israeli offensives began in October.
Israel has killed several senior Hamas officials over the years, but they were quickly replaced and had little apparent impact on the organization’s operations.
Marwan Bishara, a senior political analyst at Al Jazeera, said that “every time Israel assassinates one Hamas leader and declares victory, dozens more come forward in his place.”
“The idea of declaring victory because one or two or several Hamas leaders have been killed has turned out to be more of a sham,” Bishara said.
“It may be argued that killing these leaders is a tactical or strategic victory. But the bottom line is that Hamas is more than capable of producing more leaders. “We have proven that,” he added.
