Palestinian sources to Saudi newspaper: Hamas number 3 Issa ‘hit but fate unclear’ after IDF strike

Palestinian sources tell a UK-based Saudi newspaper that Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of Hamas’s military wing and the terror group’s third most senior official in Gaza, was at the location targeted in an Israeli strike last week.

According to Asharq Al-Awsat, cited by the Ynet news site, Issa “was hit, but his fate is unclear.”

It’s apparently the first time that Gaza-based “informed sources” have admitted that Issa was at the location, Channel 12 reports.

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.

Security officials reportedly told ministers at Friday’s security cabinet meeting that all signs indicate Issa was killed in the strike. However, the army warned that the matter had not yet been fully verified while Hamas still refrained from confirming or denying Issa is dead.