Israel launched an assault on Hamas leaders in Qatar on Tuesday, increasing its marketing campaign towards the Palestinian militant group.
Israeli officers instructed Reuters the strike was geared toward high Hamas leaders together with Khalil al-Hayya, its exiled Gaza chief and high negotiator. Two Hamas sources instructed Reuters that Hamas officers within the ceasefire negotiating crew survived the assault.
Listed here are a few of the high Hamas figures killed by Israel and those that stay alive virtually two years because the begin of the Gaza struggle, which started when the group attacked communities in southern Israel on October 7, 2023:
DEAD
MOHAMMAD SINWAR
Mohammad Sinwar was a veteran Hamas commander and its general navy chief in Gaza on the time Israel mentioned it killed him in Could.
Sinwar had been elevated to Hamas’ high ranks after Israel killed his older brother, Yahya Sinwar, a mastermind of the October 7 assaults, in 2024.
YAHYA SINWAR
The Israeli navy killed Yahya Sinwar in Gaza in October, 2024, simply over a yr after the October 7 assaults he helped to plan. Sinwar had been Israel’s most needed enemy on the time, and was extensively assumed to be working the struggle in Gaza. He grew to become Hamas chief after the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, in Iran in July 2024.
ISMAIL HANIYEH
Haniyeh was assassinated in July 2024 throughout a go to to Tehran. He had been Hamas chief since 2017. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards mentioned he was killed by a short-range projectile. The New York Occasions, citing unnamed sources, reported that the explosion which killed him was a bomb that was covertly smuggled into the guesthouse the place he was staying. Israel’s defence minister confirmed in December it had killed him.
MOHAMMED DEIF
Israel’s navy mentioned Deif, commander of Hamas’ navy wing, was killed after fighter jets struck within the space of Khan Younis in July 2024. Deif, who had survived seven Israeli assassination makes an attempt, was believed to have been one other October 7 mastermind.
MARWAN ISSA
Deputy Hamas navy commander Marwan Issa was killed in an Israeli strike in March 2024, the Israeli navy mentioned. He had been on the high of Israel’s most-wanted record alongside Deif and Sinwar.
SALEH AL-AROURI
Deputy Hamas chief Saleh al-Arouri was killed by an Israeli drone strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs in January 2024. He was a founding father of Hamas’ navy wing, the Qassam Brigades.
ALIVE
IZZ AL-DIN AL-HADDAD
Haddad grew to become probably the most senior Hamas navy chief within the Gaza Strip after Mohammad Sinwar’s demise. Israel believes he is among the masterminds of October 7, and has recognized him amongst its most needed. He’s believed to be based mostly in northern Gaza, the focus of a brand new Israeli offensive.
KHALIL AL-HAYYA
Primarily based in Qatar, Hayya has been extensively seen as Hamas’ most influential determine overseas since Haniyeh’s demise. He’s a part of a five-man management council that has led Hamas since Yahya Sinwar’s demise. Hailing from the Gaza Strip, he has misplaced a number of shut family members – together with his eldest son – to Israeli strikes.
KHALED MESHAAL
One in every of Hamas’ most recognisable politicians Meshaal, 68, led the group between 2004 and 2017. He grew to become identified all over the world in 1997 when Israeli brokers injected him with poison in Jordan in a botched assassination try. He’s now based mostly in Qatar, serving on the five-man management council.
MOHAMMAD DARWISH
Additionally based mostly in Qatar, Mohammad Darwish was a bit of identified determine till the Haniyeh assassination, since when he has risen to prominence. He’s believed to be the chairman of the Hamas Shoura Council, the very best decision-making physique. He’s nominally the top of the five-man management council.
NIZAR AWADALLAH
Nizar Awadallah, a veteran Hamas chief, was a confidant of the group’s co-founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, and has taken a number of key posts inside the group together with in its armed wing.
Hamas sources mentioned Awadallah led Hamas in Gaza in 2006 within the wake of the group’s victory in a parliamentary election. He has made no public look or feedback because the October 7 assaults, and is believed to have left Gaza earlier than the struggle started.
ZAHER JABBARIN
Jabbarin is the top of Hamas within the Israeli-occupied West Financial institution, a job he performs from Qatar. He’s the fifth member of the management council. He’s accountable for the portfolio of Palestinian prisoners and a part of the negotiating crew.
Israel arrested him in 1993 and he was sentenced to life, earlier than he was freed in 2011 as a part of a Hamas-Israel swap deal underneath which Israel launched over 1,000 Palestinians in return for Gilad Shalit, a soldier Hamas captured in 2006.
Born in 1968 in Salfit within the West Financial institution, he co-founded the primary cells of the Hamas armed wing within the West Financial institution in 1991.