Israel Investigates: Did Its Airstrike Kill Hamas's Number Three?

Since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, Israel has continuously announced its targeting of leaders and members of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas. It has also vowed to assassinate the movement's leaders both within the besieged territory and abroad. Currently, the Israeli army is investigating the possibility of having killed Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, in an airstrike this week, according to Israeli media reports on Monday. The reports indicated that Issa may have died in an airstrike carried out last Saturday. Although the alleged targeting occurred three days ago, the Israeli army only permitted publication today. Meanwhile, Hamas has not commented on these rumors so far. Issa, who is the deputy to Mohammad Deif, the leader of the Qassam Brigades, is considered the third man in Hamas's high command. Israel has distributed 10,000 sets of cards to its forces, containing 52 images of prominent "wanted" figures in Hamas, including the movement's leader Yahya Sinwar and its military wing's chief Mohammad Deif. Israel has vowed to pursue and assassinate them both domestically and abroad. An assassination operation has already taken place in the heart of the southern suburb of the Lebanese capital Beirut, which led to the killing of Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri. Israel has previously targeted several Hamas leaders both internally and externally.