Gianluca Pacchiani is the Arab affairs reporter for The Times of Israel
Khaled Fawzi (3rd-L) head of the Egyptian Intelligence services, shares a laugh with Hamas leader Izzat al-Rishq (2nd-L) and Fatah's Azzam al-Ahmad (C) following the signing of a reconciliation deal in Cairo on October 12, 2017. (AFP/Khaled Desouki)
A top Hamas official is casting doubt on Israel’s claim that it killed Marwan Issa, deputy head of Hamas’s military wing, in an airstrike earlier this month.
“We have no trust in the Israeli military’s claims about the alleged death of the brother and jihad leader Marwan Issa,” writes Izzat al-Rishq, a member of the Hamas political bureau, on his Telegram channel.
“The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades [the military wing of Hamas] have the final say on the issue,” he adds.
Marwan Issa, the deputy head of Hamas’s military wing, circled in a photo circulated on social media in 2015. The photo or its source could not be immediately verified.
IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari officially confirmed in a press conference yesterday that Issa, considered the group’s third-most senior figure, was slain in an Israeli airstrike in the central Gaza Strip on March 10. The US previously announced Issa’s death, although at the time, Israel said it was still evaluating the results of the bombing.
Al-Rishq claims that the timing of Israel’s announcement of the news was to “cover up the crises facing Netanyahu, and the failure [of the IDF] to achieve its goals.”
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