Hamas fears Israel will extract Marwan Issa’s body from Gaza to use as bargaining chip – report

Hamas believes the body of Marwan Issa, deputy commander of the terror group’s military wing, is buried in the rubble of a destroyed tunnel in the Gaza Strip and that Israel will try to extract it to use as a bargaining chip, according to a Hebrew media report citing Palestinian sources.

Issa was targeted and believed killed in an Israel Defense Forces strike on central Gaza’s Nuseirat last week.

The Kan broadcaster also quotes the sources as saying the body of a Hamas brigade commander is also buried in the rubble and that his body could also be extracted.

Hamas is hesitant to extract the bodies in case the rescue team is attacked by the IDF, the report adds.

Issa serves as the deputy of Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas’s military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. Together with Hamas’s leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, they are believed to have masterminded the group’s October 7 massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war.