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Israel killed Hamas's deputy commander Marwan Issa last week, the White House said on Monday.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan during a press briefing described Mr Issa as “Hamas’s number three" official.
Hamas has not yet officially commented on reports of his death.
“The rest of the top leaders are in hiding, likely deep in the Hamas tunnel network. And justice will come for them too, and we are helping to ensure that," Mr Sullivan said.
The statement was part of a readout of a call between US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Mr Issa was 58 at the time of his death.
Mr Issa, nicknamed the Shadow Man for his low public profile and ability to evade Israeli arrest and assassination attempts over the decades, was one of the longest-serving senior leaders in Hamas.
Despite his senior position in the militant group, not a lot was know about his appearance until he was caught on camera during a prisoner exchange in 2011 involving Israeli soldier Sgt Gilad Shalit. Mr Issa survived at least three Israeli attempts to kill him, in 2006, 2014 and 2021.
Israel’s military said on March 11 that he was the target of an air strike on an underground compound in central Gaza on March 9 to 10. It described him as one of the men behind Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel. He is the most senior Hamas figure to be killed in the war so far.
Israel said Ghazi Abu Tamaa, a former commander of the Hamas Central Camps Brigade, was also a target in the operation, which involved the Shin Bet security service.
Israeli Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said at the time that it was unclear if Mr Issa was killed in the operation.
Issa's role in Hamas
As the deputy commander of Hamas' military wing, the Ezzedine Al Qassam Brigades, he was the right-hand man to Mohammed Deif, head of the brigades. Mr Issa assumed the role after the assassination of another senior commander, Ahmed Al Jabari.
Mr Issa served both on Hamas’s military council and in its Gaza political office, overseen by Yahya Sinwar, the group’s highest-ranking official in the enclave.
Mr Issa was listed as a “specially designated global terrorist” and subject to US sanctions in 2019 by former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, and later by the EU in 2023, when the bloc also imposed sanctions on Mr Deif, in response to the October 7 attack.
Mr Issa was jailed by Israel for five years during the First Palestinian Intifada in the late 1980s and detained by the Palestinian Authority in 1997 until the start of the Second Intifada in 2000.
He said in a 2021 interview that he was involved in indirect talks that resulted in Israel exchanging more than 1,000 Palestinian detainees for Sgt Shalit.
“Even if the resistance in Palestine is monitored by the enemy at all hours, it will surprise the enemy,” he told Al Jazeera at the time.
Mr Issa rarely appeared in public, but was third on Israeli's most-wanted list. Saleh Al Arouri, fourth on the list, was killed weeks ago in Israeli strikes in Lebanon.
Mr Issa was born in the Bureij area of central Gaza in 1965, but his family is from what is now the Ashkelon area in Israel. He attended schools run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees and continued his education at the Islamic University in Gaza.
He played basketball for Al Bureij Services Club. His arrest in 1987 ended any sporting ambitions he may have had.
One of his four sons, Muhammad, was reportedly killed in an air strike in December. His other son, Baraa, nine, died in 2009 after he was denied permission to enter Egypt to receive medical treatment.
Countdown to Zero exhibition will show how disease can be beaten
Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease, an international multimedia exhibition created by the American Museum of National History in collaboration with The Carter Center, will open in Abu Dhabi a month before Reaching the Last Mile.
Opening on October 15 and running until November 15, the free exhibition opens at The Galleria mall on Al Maryah Island, and has already been seen at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
The Bio
Name: Lynn Davison
Profession: History teacher at Al Yasmina Academy, Abu Dhabi
Children: She has one son, Casey, 28
Hometown: Pontefract, West Yorkshire in the UK
Favourite book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Favourite Author: CJ Sansom
Favourite holiday destination: Bali
Favourite food: A Sunday roast
Five famous companies founded by teens
There are numerous success stories of teen businesses that were created in college dorm rooms and other modest circumstances. Below are some of the most recognisable names in the industry:
- Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg and his friends started Facebook when he was a 19-year-old Harvard undergraduate.
- Dell: When Michael Dell was an undergraduate student at Texas University in 1984, he started upgrading computers for profit. He starting working full-time on his business when he was 19. Eventually, his company became the Dell Computer Corporation and then Dell Inc.
- Subway: Fred DeLuca opened the first Subway restaurant when he was 17. In 1965, Mr DeLuca needed extra money for college, so he decided to open his own business. Peter Buck, a family friend, lent him $1,000 and together, they opened Pete’s Super Submarines. A few years later, the company was rebranded and called Subway.
- Mashable: In 2005, Pete Cashmore created Mashable in Scotland when he was a teenager. The site was then a technology blog. Over the next few decades, Mr Cashmore has turned Mashable into a global media company.
- Oculus VR: Palmer Luckey founded Oculus VR in June 2012, when he was 19. In August that year, Oculus launched its Kickstarter campaign and raised more than $1 million in three days. Facebook bought Oculus for $2 billion two years later.
The bio
Job: Coder, website designer and chief executive, Trinet solutions
School: Year 8 pupil at Elite English School in Abu Hail, Deira
Role Models: Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk
Dream City: San Francisco
Hometown: Dubai
City of birth: Thiruvilla, Kerala
Results
6.30pm Madjani Stakes Rated Conditions (PA) I Dh160,000 I 1,900m I Winner: Mawahib, Tadhg O’Shea (jockey), Eric Lemartinel (trainer)
7.05pm Maiden Dh150,000 I 1,400m I Winner One Season, Antonio Fresu, Satish Seemar
7.40pm: Maiden Dh150,000 I 2,000m I Winner Street Of Dreams, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson
8.15pm Dubai Creek Listed I Dh250,000 I 1,600m I Winner Heavy Metal, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer
8.50pm The Entisar Listed I Dh250,000 I 2,000m I Winner Etijaah, Dane O’Neill, Doug Watson
9.25pm The Garhoud Listed I Dh250,000 I 1,200m I Winner Muarrab, Dane O’Neill, Ali Rashid Al Raihe
10pm Handicap I Dh160,000 I 1,600m I Winner Sea Skimmer, Patrick Cosgrave, Helal Al Alawi
A new relationship with the old country
Treaty of Friendship between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates
The United kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates; Considering that the United Arab Emirates has assumed full responsibility as a sovereign and independent State; Determined that the long-standing and traditional relations of close friendship and cooperation between their peoples shall continue; Desiring to give expression to this intention in the form of a Treaty Friendship; Have agreed as follows:
ARTICLE 1 The relations between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates shall be governed by a spirit of close friendship. In recognition of this, the Contracting Parties, conscious of their common interest in the peace and stability of the region, shall: (a) consult together on matters of mutual concern in time of need; (b) settle all their disputes by peaceful means in conformity with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.
ARTICLE 2 The Contracting Parties shall encourage education, scientific and cultural cooperation between the two States in accordance with arrangements to be agreed. Such arrangements shall cover among other things: (a) the promotion of mutual understanding of their respective cultures, civilisations and languages, the promotion of contacts among professional bodies, universities and cultural institutions; (c) the encouragement of technical, scientific and cultural exchanges.
ARTICLE 3 The Contracting Parties shall maintain the close relationship already existing between them in the field of trade and commerce. Representatives of the Contracting Parties shall meet from time to time to consider means by which such relations can be further developed and strengthened, including the possibility of concluding treaties or agreements on matters of mutual concern.
ARTICLE 4 This Treaty shall enter into force on today’s date and shall remain in force for a period of ten years. Unless twelve months before the expiry of the said period of ten years either Contracting Party shall have given notice to the other of its intention to terminate the Treaty, this Treaty shall remain in force thereafter until the expiry of twelve months from the date on which notice of such intention is given.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned have signed this Treaty.
DONE in duplicate at Dubai the second day of December 1971AD, corresponding to the fifteenth day of Shawwal 1391H, in the English and Arabic languages, both texts being equally authoritative.
Signed
Geoffrey Arthur Sheikh Zayed
