Marwan Issa, Hamas’ number three, was killed last week “during an Israeli operation” in the Gaza Strip, announced American national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Monday March 18 during a press conference.
Marwan Issa, born in 1965, was also the deputy of Mohammed Deif, the leader of the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement.
On the night of March 9-10, “fighter jets attacked an underground base of Hamas leaders in the central Gaza Strip,” which was “used by two senior leaders of the organization [including] Marwan Issa », Announced the spokesperson for the Israeli army, Daniel Hagari, on March 11. “We are still examining the results of the strike” and “when we are sure we know, we will say so,” he added.
Top official killed in Gaza Strip
Jake Sullivan made the announcement while speaking about a potential major ground offensive by the Israeli army in Rafah, southern Gaza. Such an operation would be “a mistake,” he declared, assuring that Israel would not launch it before discussions took place “in the coming days” in Washington on the subject.
A large-scale military operation in Rafah, on the border with Egypt, “would lead to more innocent victims, worsen the already serious humanitarian situation, reinforce anarchy in Gaza and further isolate Israel” on the international stage, he said. warned Jake Sullivan. “Israel has not presented us with a plan for how, or where, they would evacuate these civilians, much less how they would house or feed them,” he added.
“We share the objective of defeating Hamas, but we believe that a coherent and sustainable strategy is needed to achieve this,” the advisor said. However, he considered that Israel had “made important progress” against the Palestinian Islamist movement. It was then that he confirmed the death of Marwan Issa, who became the highest-ranking official killed in the Gaza Strip by the Israeli army since the start of the war.
