Israel was checking whether it had killed Hamas’s deputy military leader Marwan Issa in an airstrike in Gaza, The Times of Israel responded.
If the death is confirmed, Issa would be the highest-ranking official from the Islamist group to have been killed in the five-month war that began after Hamas militants from Gaza killed 1,200 people and took 253 hostages in southern Israel on October 7.
Since then over 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive.
The Israeli forces bombed the Al-Nusseirat camp in central Gaza. According to reports, five people died in the attack and one of them could be Issa.
Nicknamed the “shadow man” for his ability to stay off Israel’s radar screens, he was one of three top Hamas leaders who planned the attack on October 7.
Issa was high on Israel’s most wanted list, along with military wing head Mohammed Deif and Hamas’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar.
Former Israeli military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin told a TV channel that Issa was the liaison between the military and political wing of Hamas.
The terrorist is believed to have spent major time in both Israeli and Palestinian jails. He was first arrested in 1987 when he spent five years in jail. After his release in 1993, he was rearrested once more in 1997, by Palestinian authorities, before being released in 2000.
Since 2006, Issa has been repeatedly targeted but Israeli forces failed to make a breakthrough.
No breakthrough in ceasefire talks
Meanwhile, talks on the ceasefire have hit a roadblock with the terror group blaming Israel for refusing to give guarantees to end the war and withdraw troops. Tel Aviv has said that it wants a temporary ceasefire to allow exchange of hostages, but it wont stop its war until it has defeated Hamas.
Negotiators from Qatar and Egypt along with the US have repeatedly asked for a halt in hostilities for Ramzan, which began on Monday.
