(Reuters) – Israel launched an assault on Hamas leaders in Qatar on Tuesday, increasing its marketing campaign towards the Palestinian militant group.
Israeli officers advised Reuters the strike was aimed toward prime Hamas leaders together with Khalil al-Hayya, its exiled Gaza chief and prime negotiator. Two Hamas sources advised Reuters that Hamas officers within the ceasefire negotiating crew survived the assault.
Listed here are a few of the prime Hamas figures killed by Israel and those that stay alive virtually two years for the reason that begin of the Gaza conflict, which started when the group attacked communities in southern Israel on October 7, 2023:
DEAD
MOHAMMAD SINWAR
Mohammad Sinwar was a veteran Hamas commander and its total navy chief in Gaza on the time Israel stated it killed him in Might.
Sinwar had been elevated to Hamas’ prime ranks after Israel killed his older brother, Yahya Sinwar, a mastermind of the October 7 assaults, in 2024.
YAHYA SINWAR
The Israeli navy killed Yahya Sinwar in Gaza in October, 2024, simply over a 12 months after the October 7 assaults he helped to plan. Sinwar had been Israel’s most needed enemy on the time, and was broadly assumed to be working the conflict in Gaza. He turned Hamas chief after the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, in Iran in July 2024.
ISMAIL HANIYEH
Haniyeh was assassinated in July 2024 throughout a go to to Tehran. He had been Hamas chief since 2017. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards stated he was killed by a short-range projectile. The New York Occasions, citing unnamed sources, reported that the explosion which killed him was a bomb that was covertly smuggled into the guesthouse the place he was staying. Israel’s defence minister confirmed in December it had killed him.
MOHAMMED DEIF
Israel’s navy stated Deif, commander of Hamas’ navy wing, was killed after fighter jets struck within the space of Khan Younis in July 2024. Deif, who had survived seven Israeli assassination makes an attempt, was believed to have been one other October 7 mastermind.
MARWAN ISSA
Deputy Hamas navy commander Marwan Issa was killed in an Israeli strike in March 2024, the Israeli navy stated. He had been on the prime of Israel’s most-wanted listing alongside Deif and Sinwar.
SALEH AL-AROURI
Deputy Hamas chief Saleh al-Arouri was killed by an Israeli drone strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs in January 2024. He was a founding father of Hamas’ navy wing, the Qassam Brigades.
ALIVE
IZZ AL-DIN AL-HADDAD
Haddad turned probably the most senior Hamas navy chief within the Gaza Strip after Mohammad Sinwar’s demise. Israel believes he is likely one of the masterminds of October 7, and has recognized him amongst its most needed. He’s believed to be primarily based in northern Gaza, the point of interest of a brand new Israeli offensive.
KHALIL AL-HAYYA
Primarily based in Qatar, Hayya has been broadly seen as Hamas’ most influential determine overseas since Haniyeh’s demise. He’s a part of a five-man management council that has led Hamas since Yahya Sinwar’s demise. Hailing from the Gaza Strip, he has misplaced a number of shut family members – together with his eldest son – to Israeli strikes.
KHALED MESHAAL
One among Hamas’ most recognisable politicians Meshaal, 68, led the group between 2004 and 2017. He turned recognized world wide in 1997 when Israeli brokers injected him with poison in Jordan in a botched assassination try. He’s now primarily based in Qatar, serving on the five-man management council.
MOHAMMAD DARWISH
Additionally primarily based in Qatar, Mohammad Darwish was somewhat recognized determine till the Haniyeh assassination, since when he has risen to prominence. He’s believed to be the chairman of the Hamas Shoura Council, the very best decision-making physique. He’s nominally the pinnacle of the five-man management council.
NIZAR AWADALLAH
Nizar Awadallah, a veteran Hamas chief, was a confidant of the group’s co-founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, and has taken a number of key posts throughout the group together with in its armed wing.
Hamas sources stated Awadallah led Hamas in Gaza in 2006 within the wake of the group’s victory in a parliamentary election. He has made no public look or feedback for the reason that October 7 assaults, and is believed to have left Gaza earlier than the conflict started.
ZAHER JABBARIN
Jabbarin is the pinnacle of Hamas within the Israeli-occupied West Financial institution, a job he performs from Qatar. He’s the fifth member of the management council. He’s in control of the portfolio of Palestinian prisoners and a part of the negotiating crew.
Israel arrested him in 1993 and he was sentenced to life, earlier than he was freed in 2011 as a part of a Hamas-Israel swap deal underneath which Israel launched over 1,000 Palestinians in return for Gilad Shalit, a soldier Hamas captured in 2006.
Born in 1968 in Salfit within the West Financial institution, he co-founded the primary cells of the Hamas armed wing within the West Financial institution in 1991.
(Compiled by Nidal al-Mughrabi, Tom Perry, Jana Choukeir; Modifying by William Maclean)