\n<\/p>\n
Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of Hamas\u2019s military wing in Gaza and a presumed mastermind of the Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel, was confirmed dead on Monday by a senior U.S. official after an Israeli airstrike more than a week ago.<\/p>\n
Jake Sullivan, the U.S. national security adviser, told reporters that Mr. Issa, one if the highest-ranking officials in Hamas, had been killed. Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said on March 11 that Israeli military warplanes had targeted Mr. Issa and another senior Hamas official in an underground compound in central Gaza.<\/p>\n
With his death, Mr. Issa, who had been among Israel\u2019s most wanted men, became the senior-most Hamas leader to be killed in Gaza since the start of the war. Israeli officials have characterized the strike as a breakthrough in their campaign to wipe out the Hamas leadership in Gaza.<\/p>\n
But experts cautioned that his death would not have a devastating effect on Hamas\u2019s leadership structure. Israel has killed Hamas\u2019s political and military leaders in the past, only to see them quickly replaced.<\/p>\n
Here is a closer look at Mr. Issa and what his death means for Hamas and its leadership.<\/p>\n
Mr. Issa, who was 58 or 59 at the time of his death, had served since 2012 as a deputy to Mohammed Deif, the elusive leader of the Qassam Brigades, Hamas\u2019s military wing. Mr. Issa assumed the role after the assassination of another top commander, Ahmed al-Jabari.<\/p>\n
Mr. Issa served both on Hamas\u2019s military council and in its Gaza political office, overseen by Yahya Sinwar, the group\u2019s highest-ranking official in the enclave. Mr. Issa was described by Palestinian analysts and former Israeli security officials as an important strategist who played a key role as a liaison between Hamas\u2019s military and political leaders.<\/p>\n
Salah al-Din al-Awawdeh, a Palestinian analyst close to Hamas, described Mr. Issa\u2019s position in the group as \u201cpart of the front rank of the military wing\u2019s leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maj. Gen. Tamir Hayman, the former Israeli military intelligence chief, said Mr. Issa was simultaneously Hamas\u2019s \u201cdefense minister,\u201d its deputy military commander and its \u201cstrategic mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Experts described Mr. Issa as an important associate of Mr. Deif and Mr. Sinwar, though they said his death did not represent a threat to the group\u2019s survival.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s always a replacement,\u201d Mr. Awawdeh said. \u201cI don\u2019t think the assassination of any member of the military wing will have an effect on its activities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael Milshtein, a former Israeli military intelligence officer and an expert on Palestinian affairs, said Mr. Issa\u2019s death was a significant blow to the Qassam Brigades, though he conceded it wasn\u2019t \u201cthe end of the world\u201d for Hamas.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a lot of experience,\u201d Mr. Milshtein said. \u201cHis death is a big loss for Hamas, but it isn\u2019t a loss that will lead to its collapse and it won\u2019t affect it for a long time. In a week or two, they\u2019ll overcome it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Milshtein added that even though Mr. Issa\u2019s opinion was valued at the highest levels of Hamas, the fact he did not directly command fighters meant his death did not leave a gaping hole in Hamas\u2019s operations.<\/p>\n
Mr. Issa was a lesser-known member of Hamas\u2019s top brass, maintaining a low profile and rarely appearing in public.<\/p>\n
Gerhard Conrad, a former German intelligence officer who met Mr. Issa more than a decade ago, described him as a \u201cdecisive and quiet\u201d person lacking charisma. \u201cHe was not very eloquent, but he knew what to say, and he was straight to the point,\u201d Mr. Conrad said in an interview.<\/p>\n
Mr. Conrad said he met Mr. Issa, Mr. al-Jabari and Mahmoud al-Zahar, another senior Hamas official, about ten times between 2009 and 2011 in Gaza City. The men met as part of an effort to broker a prisoner swap between Israel and Hamas.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was the master of the data on the prisoners,\u201d Mr. Conrad said of Mr. Issa. \u201cHe had all the names to be negotiated on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Conrad, however, said it was apparent at the time that Mr. Issa was a subordinate to Mr. al-Jabari. \u201cHe was a kind of chief of staff,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
It was only after Mr. al-Jabari\u2019s assassination that Mr. Issa\u2019s prominence grew, but he still was keen to stay out of view. Few images of Mr. Issa are in the public domain.<\/p>\n
Mr. Awawdeh, the analyst, called Mr. Issa a man who liked to \u201cremain in the shadows\u201d and who seldom granted interviews to the media.<\/p>\n
In one of those rare interviews<\/a>, Mr. Issa spoke in 2021 about his role in the indirect talks that resulted in Israel exchanging more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners<\/a> for a single Israeli soldier, Sgt. First Class Gilad Shalit, and his hopes for a future conflict with Israel.<\/p>\n \u201cEven if the resistance in Palestine is monitored by the enemy at all hours, it will surprise the enemy,\u201d he told Al Jazeera at the time.<\/p>\n In a separate interview with a Hamas publication in 2005, Mr. Issa lauded militants who raided Israeli settlements and military bases, calling the actions \u201cheroic\u201d and an \u201cadvanced activity.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Issa was born in the Bureij area of central Gaza in 1965, but his family hails from what is now the Ashkelon area in Israel.<\/p>\n A Hamas member for decades, he was involved with the militant group involved pursuing Palestinians who were believed to have collaborated with Israel, according to Mr. Awawdeh.<\/p>\n Mr. Issa spent time in prisons operated by both Israel and the Palestinian Authority.<\/p>\n Admiral Hagari has said that Mr. Issa helped plan the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack. Mr. Issa is also thought to have planned operations aimed at infiltrating Israeli settlements during the second intifada in the 2000s, Mr. Milshtein said.<\/p>\n March 18, 2024<\/p>\n :\u00a0<\/p>\n An earlier version of this article misstated the name of a former Israeli military intelligence chief. He is Maj. Gen. Tamir Hayman, not Heyman.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n How we handle corrections<\/p>\n<\/div>\nWhat is known about his early life?<\/h2>\n