IDF confirms death of Hamas de facto PM, other officials in Gaza airstrike several months ago

Senior Hamas official Rawhi Mushtaha, the de facto prime minister of the Gaza Strip, was killed in an Israeli strike several months ago, the IDF and Shin Bet say they have confirmed.

According to the military and Shin Bet, Mushtaha was targeted in a strike in the Gaza Strip three months ago, along with Hamas officials Sameh al-Siraj, who held the security portfolio in Hamas’s political bureau, and Sami Odeh, the head of Hamas’s “general security mechanism.”

The IDF is now confirming that the three were killed in the strike.

The strike, carried out by fighter jets, targeted the officials while they were hiding in a tunnel in the northern Gaza Strip. The IDF says it had “precise intelligence” indicating the officials were in the tunnel.

The military describes the tunnel as “a fortified and equipped underground compound” that “served as a Hamas command and control center and enabled senior operatives to remain inside of it for extended periods of time.”

Hamas has not confirmed the deaths of the senior officials. The IDF says that Hamas is hiding its losses “to prevent loss of morale and functioning of its terror operatives.”

The IDF says that Mushtaha was Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s “right-hand man and one of his closest associates.”

Mushtaha and Sinwar served a prison sentence together in an Israeli jail, and later together established Hamas’s general security mechanism, according to the IDF.

“Mushtaha was considered to be the most senior figure in the Hamas political bureau in the Gaza Strip, and during the war maintained civil control of the Hamas regime, while simultaneously engaging in terror activity against Israel,” the military says.

The IDF says he was also “one of Hamas’s most senior operatives, and had a direct impact on decisions relating to Hamas’s force deployment.”

“Mushtaha was involved in military decisions while also acting as the head of Hamas civil governance in the Gaza Strip and holding the prisoners affairs portfolio. He also formerly held the finance portfolio,” the military adds.