Marwan Issa, who was the target of an Israeli strike in central Gaza over the weekend, is one of three leaders of Hamas in Gaza who Israel says were the main planners of the Oct. 7 attack, which killed over 1,200 people and led to the kidnapping of about 240 others, according to Israeli officials. It remained unclear on Tuesday whether the strike had hit him.
Here is what to know about the most senior Hamas leaders in Gaza:
Marwan Issa
Mr. Issa, the deputy commander of Hamas’s military wing, would be the highest ranking Hamas military official to be killed by Israel in recent years. Like many other senior Hamas military leaders in Gaza, Mr. Issa has kept a low profile, rarely appearing in public, in part to avoid targeted strikes like the one over the weekend that Israel’s military said hit an underground space he had used.
An Israeli army spokesman described Mr. Issa as having helped plan the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7. In addition to his military role, Mr. Issa served as a negotiator in talks that led to a cease-fire following a nearly two-week flare-up with Israel in 2021, as well as a deal in 2011, when one captive Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, was exchanged for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.
Yahya Sinwar
Mr. Sinwar, Hamas’s leader in Gaza, was born in the Khan Younis refugee camp, which was set up after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and has since become a permanent community, part of the wider city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza. He founded a precursor to Hamas’s military wing, called Al Majd, and helped establish Hamas in 1987. At the time, he was responsible for identifying and punishing Palestinians suspected of infringing “morality” codes or collaborating with Israel.
In 1988, Mr. Sinwar was arrested by Israeli forces and sentenced to four life sentences for his role in killing four Palestinians suspected of working with Israel, according to Israeli court records.
Mr. Sinwar spent over 20 years in Israeli prison, and was released as part of the Gilad Shalit deal in 2011. Upon his return to Gaza, Mr. Sinwar slowly rose through the ranks of Hamas leadership, taking on a role akin to defense minister in 2012, and being elected to the top Hamas post in Gaza in 2017. He is known to be a hard-liner and developed a reputation for brutality, which earned him the nickname “the butcher of Khan Younis.”
Mohammed Deif
Mr. Deif, the enigmatic commander of Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades, was also born in the Khan Younis refugee camp. As a young man, he joined Hamas around the time it was founded, and he quickly rose through the organization’s ranks, succeeding the founder of Hamas’s military wing, Salah Shehadeh, in 2002 after Mr. Shehadeh was killed in an Israeli strike. He orchestrated numerous attacks on Israel, including a series of suicide bombings in 1996. Known as Hamas’s top bomb maker, Mr. Deif also built Hamas’s military wing into a fighting force.
Mr. Deif has been at the top of Israel’s list of most-wanted terrorists for decades, and has evaded more than eight attempts on his life, according to Israeli intelligence. Israeli intelligence officials believe he lost an eye and was seriously injured in these attempts. In 2014, an Israeli airstrike killed one of his wives and their infant son.
Mr. Deif has not been seen publicly for years, and Israeli officials believe he has spent the past decades in Hamas’s warren of underground tunnels. Following the Oct. 7 attack, Mr. Deif said in a recorded message released by Hamas that the group had decided to launch an “operation” so that “the enemy will understand that the time of their rampaging without accountability has ended.”