Slain Hamas deputy chief Marwan Issa given Gaza burial

Hundreds of Hamas operatives and onlookers gathered in the Gaza Strip’s Bureij camp on Friday for the funeral of Marwan Issa, the slain deputy leader of the terror group’s armed wing.

Brandishing assault rifles, fighters from the group’s Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades packed the narrow streets of the central Gaza camp for the funerary procession. Their eyes were the only visible feature behind black masks.

The Israeli military said it killed Issa in a March 2024 airstrike. Hamas only confirmed his death on January 30 amid an ongoing ceasefire with Israel in Gaza.

The group also announced the death of Hamas military chief Muhammad Deif, whom Israel said it had killed in a July 2024 airstrike, as well as several other fighters and commanders.

Issa’s coffin, draped in the green Hamas flags and adorned with pictures of the slain deputy, was carried aloft by operatives during the procession. Friday prayers before the burial were held in a sports stadium in the camp.

“Do not think that the resistance has ended with the assassination of the great leader Marwan Issa,” said an operative from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group, whose members were also out in force at the funeral.

“We have many resistance fighters and heroes, and we are constantly preparing for you,” he added.

Israel accused Issa of being one of the organizers of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack, which started the Gaza war. On that day, thousands of marauding terrorists swept across the border and attacked numerous Israeli communities and bases, killing some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and abducting 251 to Gaza.

Israel also targeted the heads of Hamas during the war. Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran in July 2024, with Jerusalem taking responsibility in December, while Yahya Sinwar was killed by troops in Gaza in October 2024.