After Eliminating Ismail Haniyeh, Israel’s Hunt for Hamas Leaders Continues

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The strike in Tehran on July 31 that killed Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s most senior political chief, brings to 4 the variety of Hamas’s high leaders eradicated because the October 7 atrocities in southern Israel. Previous to the killing of Haniyeh — who was in Tehran for the inauguration of Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, alongside the leaders of different Iranian terror proxy teams — Israel had already eradicated Hamas’s deputy political chief, Saleh al-Arouri, deputy chief of army operations Marwan Issa, and the commander of Hamas’s al-Qassam Brigades, Mohammed Deif. Haniyeh’s demise got here simply hours after Israel eradicated Fuad Shukr, often known as “Sayyid Muhsan,” within the southern suburbs of Beirut. Shukr was probably the most senior army commander of Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Professional Evaluation

“For the reason that devastating atrocities of October 7, the leaders of Hamas have been dwelling on borrowed time. Along with Haniyeh, Israel has this 12 months additionally eradicated Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut and Marwan Issa and Mohammed Deif in Gaza. The world now understands that Israel is critical about destroying Hamas and, extra broadly, eradicating the grave menace posed by Iran’s proxies as soon as and for all.” — Mark Dubowitz, FDD CEO

“Regardless of Hamas struggling important blows in latest weeks in opposition to its management in Gaza and overseas, there’s extra work that lies forward if the Jewish state needs to realize its remaining goals. Nonetheless, momentum has shifted considerably in Israel’s favor, and it’s now ready of energy to barter a deal for the remaining hostages nonetheless being held in Gaza.” — Joe Truzman, Senior Analysis Analyst at FDD’s Lengthy Warfare Journal

Israel Pursues Terror Leaders in Gaza, Lebanon, and Past

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged in October that “each member of Hamas is a useless man.” Within the months since, Israel has endeavored to satisfy that prediction. Israeli Protection Minister Yoav Gallant introduced in March that Israel additionally deliberate to pursue Hezbollah. “We’re turning from pushing again [Hezbollah] to searching it. In every single place Hezbollah is discovered, we attain,” Gallant mentioned.

On January 2, Hamas’s third-most senior determine, Saleh al-Arouri, was killed in a Beirut strike that Lebanese authorities blamed on Israel. After a interval of being headquartered in Turkey, Arouri relocated to Lebanon, the place he spearheaded Hamas’s coordination with Hezbollah and their shared Iranian patron.

On March 10, Israel carried out a precision airstrike within the central Gaza Strip city of Nuseirat concentrating on Marwan Issa, the deputy chief of Hamas’s army operations. On July 13, Israel focused Hamas army chief Muhammed Deif and the commander of Hamas’s Khan Younis brigade, Rafa’a Salameh. Israel considers Deif to be certainly one of two masterminds behind Hamas’s October 7 onslaught. Deif had survived no less than six earlier assassination makes an attempt. Salameh “performed a big position” in operations such because the cross-border abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2006. In 2016, Salameh took over the Khan Younis Brigade from Mohammed Sinwar, brother of Hamas’s Gaza chief, Yahya Sinwar.

Moreover, Israel killed Mohammed Reza Zahedi, a senior commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), in a Damascus airstrike on April 1. Zahedi was most not too long ago believed to be serving as chief of the IRGC’s elite Quds Pressure in Syria and Lebanon — a job that may have made him a high coordinator between Tehran and Hezbollah.

Hamas Leaders Who Stay At Massive

Israeli Protection Minister Yoav Gallant mentioned in October that “Hamas terrorists have two choices: Be killed or give up unconditionally.” Regardless of the killing or capturing of 1000’s of terrorists, no less than three of Hamas’s high leaders stay alive: Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Sinwar, and Khaled Meshal.

Yahya Sinwar has served as Hamas’s political chief in Gaza since 2017. Israel considers him to be the primary mastermind of Hamas’s October 7 assault. Sinwar was serving a number of life phrases for the killing of two Israeli troopers when Israel launched him in 2011 as a part of a deal to free Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, whom Hamas had held captive for 5 years.

Mohammed Sinwar was concerned in planning a number of suicide bombing assaults within the mid-Nineteen Nineties that claimed dozens of Israeli lives. He turned the commander of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade in 2005. Sinwar oversees Hamas’s army command construction in southern Gaza and was unsuccessfully focused by Israel through the Could 2021 Gaza battle, throughout which he admitted to coordinating with Iran and Hezbollah

Khaled Meshal is a founding member of Hamas. He turned the group’s exterior political chief in 2004 and was appointed in 2021 to fill a new position inside Hamas, successfully its international minister. In 1997, Israel tried to assassinate Meshal in Jordan. He’s at the moment primarily based in Qatar. Meshal is on the short-list to succeed Haniyeh because the principal political chief of Hamas.

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