Who was senior Hamas military leader Marwan Issa?

Group’s deputy commander maintained a low profile and rarely appeared in public, but was one of Israel’s most-wanted men

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Israel killed Hamas’s deputy commander last week, the White House said on Monday.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan described Mr Issa during a press briefing as “Hamas’s number three” official.

“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 or 59 at the time of his death.

Mr Issa, nicknamed the Shadow Man for his 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. He 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.

It 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. Hamas has not yet officially commented on reports of his death.

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, or uprising, in the late 1980s and detained by the Palestinian Authority in 1997 until the start of the Second Intifada in 2000.

Mr Issa said in a 2021 interview that he was involved in indirect talks that resulted in Israel exchanging more than 1,000 Palestinian detainees for a single Israeli soldier, Sgt Gilad 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. However, he was third on Israeli’s wanted list. Saleh Al Arouri, fourth on the list, was killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon weeks ago.

Mr Issa was born in the Bureij area of central Gaza in 1965, but his family is from what is now the Ashqelon area in Israel. He has two confirmed sons. Baraa, his eldest, died in 2009 after Egypt refused to allow him entry from the Gaza Strip for medical treatment. His other son, Muhammad, was killed in 2023 in an Israeli strike in Gaza.