Who is Marwan Issa, Hamas number 3, killed in an Israeli strike?

Hamas number 3 in the Gaza Strip, Marwan Issa, was killed in an Israeli airstrike last week, according to the National Security Advisor of the American Administration, Jake Sullivan. He is the highest ranking official of the organization to have been killed since October 7.

The IDF carried out an operation around March 10 in a tunnel in the Nuseirat neighborhood of the Gaza Strip, where the deputy head of the armed wing of the Islamist movement was hidden. “Israeli soldiers have made significant progress against Hamas, they have broken a significant number of [their] battalions, killed thousands of [their] fighters, including commanders,” Jake Sullivan said Monday during a press conference. Marwan Issa is said to be among the fighters killed. While Israel has not confirmed his death, a senior Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity to the New York Times, said there were numerous indications that Issa had indeed been killed. Hamas has not commented on the White House statements.

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After the October 7 massacres, Israel said it wanted the total destruction of the terrorist organization. Few of its senior officials, however, have been killed in almost six months of war. The death of Marwan Issa, suspected of having planned the attack dubbed “al-Aqsa,” would constitute a victory for the Jewish state. Some experts, however, qualify the importance of its disappearance, explaining that it will not have significant consequences on Hamas' operational capabilities.

At 58 or 59 years old, Marwan Issa held several positions within the Islamist organization, and was the bridge between its military and political branches. A former head of Israeli military intelligence, General Tamir Hayman, said Marwan Issa was both “minister of defense” and deputy military commander. He rose in rank within the Qassam brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, after the death of Ahmed al-Jabari, killed in 2012. He himself was the target of several assassination attempts between 2006 and today.

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Born in the Al Bureij refugee camp, which is located in the center of the Gaza Strip, Marwan Issa became involved with the Muslim Brotherhood in his youth. He then joined Hamas upon his release from prison, after being arrested for his participation in the first Intifada of 1987. He is also suspected of having been at the head of operations aimed at infiltrating Israeli settlements during the second Intifada from the 2000s.

His name was mentioned for the first time by the terrorist organization in 2005. He subsequently became the right-hand man of Ahmed al-Jabari, at the time deputy commander of the Qassam brigades. “He was a kind of chief of staff,” explains Gerhard Conrad, a former German intelligence agent who saw the two men around ten times between 2009 and 2011. Marwan Issa worked mainly on prisoner exchanges at that time. “He was the master of prisoner data. He had all the names to negotiate,” continued the former German officer. Issa then takes over from his former boss.

Although he then became an important figure in the Islamist movement, Marwan Issa nevertheless remained in the shadows, rarely appearing in the spotlight and giving few interviews. His face was first seen in 2011, when a photograph was published of him alongside Saleh al-Arouri and Ahmed al-Jabari, for organizing the release of a thousand Palestinians. Gerhard Conrad described him as not very charismatic in an interview for the New York Times. “He was not very eloquent but knew what to say and got straight to the point,” said the former German agent.

If Marwan Issa was “part of the top ranks of the armed wing,” according to Salah al-Din al-Awawdeh, a Palestinian expert close to Hamas, his disappearance should not paralyze the Islamist movement. “There is always a replacement . I don’t think the assassination of a member of the military wing will have any effect on its activities,” the analyst said. An opinion shared by Michael Milshtein, a former Israeli intelligence officer, for whom the organization will quickly recover. “His death is a great loss for Hamas, but it is not a loss that will lead to its collapse, and it will not affect it for long. In a week or two, they will have overcome it,” he said. He clarified that if Marwan Issa's comments were listened to by the highest officials of the organization, he did not directly lead the fighters.

Yahya Sinwar, the alleged mastermind of the October 7 attacks and leader of Hamas, is still evading the Israeli army, as is Mohammed Deif, the commander-in-chief of Hamas' armed wing.