In a sharp escalation, Israel on Tuesday targeted Hamas leaders based in Qatar, widening its offensive against the Palestinian militant group.
Israeli officials told Reuters the strike was aimed at top Hamas leaders, including Khalil al-Hayya, its exiled Gaza chief and top negotiator. Two Hamas sources told Reuters that Hamas officials in the ceasefire negotiating team survived the attack.
Here are some of the top Hamas figures killed by Israel and those who remain alive almost two years since the start of the Gaza war, which began when the group attacked communities in southern Israel on October 7, 2023:
Those who are dead
Mohammad Sinwar
Mohammad Sinwar was a veteran Hamas commander and its overall military chief in Gaza at the time Israel said it killed him in May.
Sinwar had been elevated to Hamas’ top ranks after Israel killed his older brother, Yahya Sinwar, a mastermind of the October 7 attacks, in 2024.
Yahya Sinwar
The Israeli military killed Yahya Sinwar in Gaza in October, 2024, just over a year after the October 7 attacks he helped to plan. Sinwar had been Israel’s most wanted enemy at the time, and was widely assumed to be running the war in Gaza. He became Hamas chief after the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, in Iran in July 2024.
Ismail Haniyeh
Haniyeh was assassinated in July 2024 during a visit to Tehran. He had been Hamas leader since 2017. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said he was killed by a short-range projectile. The New York Times, citing unnamed sources, reported that the explosion which killed him was a bomb that was covertly smuggled into the guesthouse where he was staying. Israel’s defence minister confirmed in December it had killed him.
Mohammed Deif
Israel’s military said Deif, commander of Hamas’ military wing, was killed after fighter jets struck in the area of Khan Younis in July 2024. Deif, who had survived seven Israeli assassination attempts, was believed to have been another October 7 mastermind.
Marwan Issa
Deputy Hamas military commander Marwan Issa was killed in an Israeli strike in March 2024, the Israeli military said. He had been at the top of Israel’s most-wanted list 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 founder of Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades.
Those who are alive
Izz Al-Din Al-Haddad
Haddad became the most senior Hamas military leader in the Gaza Strip after Mohammad Sinwar’s death. Israel believes he is one of the masterminds of October 7, and has identified him among its most wanted. He is believed to be based in northern Gaza, the focal point of a new Israeli offensive.
Khalil Al-Hayya
Based in Qatar, Hayya has been widely seen as Hamas’ most influential figure abroad since Haniyeh’s death. He is part of a five-man leadership council that has led Hamas since Yahya Sinwar’s death. Hailing from the Gaza Strip, he has lost several close relatives – including his eldest son – to Israeli strikes.
Khaled Meshaal
One of Hamas’ most recognisable politicians Meshaal, 68, led the group between 2004 and 2017. He became known around the world in 1997 when Israeli agents injected him with poison in Jordan in a botched assassination attempt. He is now based in Qatar, serving on the five-man leadership council.
Mohammad Darwish
Also based in Qatar, Mohammad Darwish was a little known figure until the Haniyeh assassination, since when he has risen to prominence. He is believed to be the chairman of the Hamas Shoura Council, the highest decision-making body. He is nominally the head of the five-man leadership council.
Nizar Awadallah
Nizar Awadallah, a veteran Hamas leader, was a confidant of the group’s co-founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, and has taken several key posts within the group including in its armed wing.
Hamas sources said Awadallah led Hamas in Gaza in 2006 in the wake of the group’s victory in a parliamentary election. He has made no public appearance or comments since the October 7 attacks, and is believed to have left Gaza before the war began.
Zaher Jabbarin
Jabbarin is the head of Hamas in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, a role he performs from Qatar. He is the fifth member of the leadership council. He is in charge of the portfolio of Palestinian prisoners and part of the negotiating team.
Israel arrested him in 1993 and he was sentenced to life, before he was freed in 2011 as part of a Hamas-Israel swap deal under which Israel released over 1,000 Palestinians in return for Gilad Shalit, a soldier Hamas captured in 2006.
Born in 1968 in Salfit in the West Bank, he co-founded the first cells of the Hamas armed wing in the West Bank in 1991.
(With inputs from Reuters)
