Five Hamas leaders killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza

Two of the senior officials were previously reported to have been successfully targeted last summer in Gaza.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Five Hamas leaders were among the 412 people the terrorist organization is claiming the IDF killed in extensive airstrikes overnight that ended the ceasefire between the warring sides, Arab-language media reported Tuesday.

Two have in the past been reported to have been successfully targeted by the IDF last summer, during active fighting in the Gaza Strip.

Ahmed Al-Hatta is listed by the European Council on Foreign Relations as Hamas’ deputy minister of justice, who was suspected of being killed on August 10, 2024.

Current Israeli and Arab reports suggest he was in fact not killed in the August 2024 strike and label him as the ministry’s current director-general.

It was initially reported that Issam Al-Da’alis had been killed in an Israeli airstrike in July. He was one of the highest-ranking members of Hamas’ political bureau, having been appointed in 2021 to head government administration in the Strip, which set policy and was responsible for running civil and security affairs in Gaza.

Other important positions he held included leading the Union of UNRWA Employees in Gaza and serving as head of its teachers’ union.

The UN aid agency for Palestinians has been banned from working in Israel due to the high number of terrorists it employed and colluded with, including some who participated in the October 7, 2023, invasion and helped abduct 251 Israelis and foreign nationals.

Al-Da’alis had also previously been an adviser to Ismail Haniyeh, when the since-assassinated leader served as Gaza’s head of state before moving to Qatar and managing the terrorist group politically from abroad.

Two of the others killed overnight ran ministries that still clamp down on the Gazan population as Hamas reasserted its harsh dominance even as its military might has been decimated by 15 months of war with Israel.

Mahmoud Abu Watfa, the director-general of Hamas’s Interior Ministry, controlled the terrorists’ police force, and Bahjat Abu Sultan headed Hamas’ internal security department.

Abu Obeidah Muhammad al-Jamasi, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, was another administrative head in the Gazan government.

Commenting on the bombings, Defense Minister Israel Katz said, “In light of Hamas’ refusal to release the kidnapped and threats to harm IDF soldiers and Israeli communities,” the “gates of hell” were now being opened against Hamas, and the IDF would not stop until the terrorists gave up all of its 59 remaining hostages, 24 of whom are believed to still be alive.

In its own statement, the Prime Minister’s Office said that “Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength.”

The IDF has since warned Gazan civilians to go for their own safety to the western neighborhoods of Gaza City and Khan Yunis, which are respectively located in the northern and southern parts of the coastal enclave.

It is as yet unclear whether this means that ground operations are soon to commence, or that the IDF will continue for the time being to strike terror targets only from the air.