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All About Key Hamas Leaders, Commanders After Yahya Sinwar's Reported Death

Israel said on Thursday that Yahya Sinwar, the overall leader of Hamas and the architect of the Palestinian group's October 7, 2023 attacks on Israeli soil, had been killed.

Here are some of the other leaders and commanders in Hamas.

MARWAN ISSA

In March, Israel said it had killed Marwan Issa, the deputy of Hamas' then military leader Mohammed Deif, but Hamas has not confirmed his death. Deif was killed in an Israeli airstrike in July.

Issa, nicknamed the "shadow man" by fellow Palestinians for his ability to stay off the enemy's radar, had risen to No. 3 within the Islamist operator group. He and the other two top Hamas leaders formed a secretive three-man military council that made strategic decisions.

KHALED MESHAAL

Meshaal, 68, previously led Hamas between 2004 and 2017. He became known around the world in 1997 when Israeli agents injected him with a poison in the Jordanian capital Amman in a botched assassination mission. He is now based in Qatar with several other senior Hamas officials.

MOHAMMAD SINWAR

The brother of Yahya Sinwar, he is one of the most senior, veteran commanders of the armed wing of Hamas. Born on September 15, 1975, he has rarely appeared in public or spoken to the media.

Mohammad Sinwar, like his brother, has been one of the top targets on Israel's wanted list and, according to Hamas sources, has survived several Israeli attempts on his life, including airstrikes and roadside-bomb attacks. The sources said the last attempt on his life, until the latest Gaza war, was in 2021.

KHALIL AL-HAYYA

Hayya was Sinwar's deputy and had recently been leading the Hamas team in indirect ceasefire talks with Israel under the supervision of Haniyeh. Hayya was in the same residence when Haniyeh was struck by a short-range projectile, according to Iran's Revolutionary Guards, in Tehran, but not in the same apartment at the time of the strike. The New York Times, citing unnamed sources, reported that the explosion that killed Haniyeh was from a bomb.

In 2007, an Israeli strike hit the house of his extended family, killing several relatives and in 2014 an attack on his house killed his eldest son.

MAHMOUD AL-ZAHAR

Zahar was a surgeon by profession. Friends and enemies used to call him "General" for his hardline views towards Israel and other opponents of Hamas.

Zahar has made no public statement or appearance since October 7 and his fate remains unknown.

The 79-year-old official survived an Israeli assassination attempt in 2003. He served as the first Hamas-appointed minister of foreign affairs after the group assumed power in Gaza in 2007 in a brief civil war with the secular Palestinian Authority, a year after it swept a parliamentary election.

MOHAMMAD SHABANA

Shabana, better known as Abu Anas Shabana, is one of the remaining top and veteran armed commanders of Hamas, heading its battalion in Rafah in the south.

Hamas sources said Shabana played a significant role in developing the network of tunnels in Rafah, which were used to attack Israeli troops along the border, including a cross-border attack in 2006 in which Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was captured.

Shabana took charge of the Rafah battalion after Israel killed three main commanders of the group during a 50-day war in 2014, during which the Islamist faction said it had abducted two Israeli soldiers.

RAWHI MUSHTAHA

Mushtaha was Sinwar's confidant and strongest ally within Hamas. Together with Sinwar, Mushtaha founded the first Hamas security apparatus in the late 1980s that was responsible for tracking and killing Palestinians accused of spying for Israel.

He was released from an Israeli prison with Sinwar in 2011 and has recently been tasked with coordinating between the group in Gaza and Egyptian security officials over a range of issues including the operation of the Rafah border crossing.

Israel said on October 3 Mushtaha had been killed in a strike in Gaza three months earlier. Hamas never confirmed or denied and Mushtaha's fate remains unclear.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)



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