Reports indicate the successful assassination of Hamas’ No. 3 leader, Marwan Issa

Kan News reported on Sunday, citing Palestinian sources, that privately Hamas has confirmed Issa’s death.

By Joshua Marks, JNS

Marwan Issa was wounded or killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting the Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip on Feb. 9, according to Palestinian sources.

According to sources in Gaza cited by London-based Saudi newspaper Asharq Al–Awsat, on Saturday, the deputy head of Hamas’s military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, and one of the terror group’s founders “was injured, but his condition is currently unknown.” They added that “the whole situation is complicated.”

The Israel Defense Force on Feb. 11 aired footage of a nighttime aerial strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, saying that there was not enough information to confirm that Issa was hit in the attack.

However, security officials reportedly told government ministers at Friday’s Security Cabinet meeting that signs indicate that the assassination attempt was successful.

Also, Kan News reported on Sunday, citing Palestinian sources, that privately Hamas has confirmed Issa’s death.

The sources said that he was hiding in a tunnel when he was struck and his body is still buried underneath the rubble.

Razi Abu Tomeh, commander of a Hamas brigade, was also killed in the strike, according to the Kan report.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the news of Issa’s likely killing, with Hebrew media quoting the premier as saying that it is “a great achievement for Israel” and that “they will all die, we will reach them all.”

The third-ranking official in Hamas, Issa is the most senior leader of the Gaza-based terrorist group targeted since Hamas started the war with its bloody invasion of the northwestern Negev on Oct. 7.

Jerusalem has vowed to assassinate all of the terror organization’s senior leaders.

In late November, Netanyahu revealed that he had instructed Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency to assassinate Hamas leaders anywhere in the world.

An Israeli strike in Beirut in early January killed Saleh al-Arouri, the commander of Hamas operations in Judea and Samaria and deputy politburo chief under Hamas chairman Ismail Haniyeh.

In a cryptic video message posted to his X social media channel on March 11, Netanyahu hinted at Issa’s assassination, referencing the killing of al-Arouri, the fourth-ranked member of Hamas.

“We are on the way to absolute victory. On the way to this victory, we already eliminated No. 4 in Hamas. 3, 2 and 1 on the way. Everyone is mortal, we will reach everyone,” he tweeted.

Other Hamas terror leaders in Israel’s sights include Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip and the mastermind of the Oct. 7 attacks, Yahya Sinwar, along with his younger brother Mohammed, commander of Hamas’s Khan Yunis Brigade; Haniyeh, head of Hamas’s politburo, who is based in Doha; Mohammed Deif, head of Hamas’s military wing; and Zaher Jabarin, one of the longest-serving members of Hamas, who served as al-Arouri’s deputy and is the terror group’s key financier.

Mossad director David Barnea in early January threatened to hit any terrorists who participated in the Oct. 7 massacre.

“Let every Arab mother know that if her son took part in the [Oct. 7] massacre—he signed his own death warrant,” said Barnea.