Reuters has listed some of the Islamist group's current top leaders and military commanders, including people whose deaths have not been confirmed by "Hamas".
The publication comes against the background of the news that during an operation in the "Gaza" the head of the radical Palestinian movement "Hamas" has been liquidated. Yahia Sinwar, the strategist of the unprecedented attack on Israeli territory on October 7 last year, which led to the outbreak of the war in the Gaza Strip.
Marwan Issa
Israel announced in March of this year that it had liquidated Marwan Issa, the deputy of the then still alive military leader of "Hamas" Mohammed Deif, but the group did not confirm his death. Deif was killed in an Israeli airstrike in July.
Issa, whom the Palestinians call The Shadow because of his ability to remain invisible to the enemy, rose to No. 3 in the organization's hierarchy. He and the other two senior leaders of "Hamas" made the strategic decisions.
Khaled Meshaal
Sixty-eight-year-old Meshaal headed "Hamas"from 2004 to 2017. He became world famous in 1998, when the Israeli agency injected him with poison in the capital of Jordan - Amman, but the assassination attempt failed. He now lives in Qatar with several other high-ranking representatives of the movement.
Mohammad Sinwar
The brother of Yahya Sinuar is one of the highest-ranking and longest-serving commanders in the military wing of "Hamas". Born on September 15, 1975, he rarely appears in public and does not often speak to the media.
Like his brother, he is at the top of Israel's most wanted list, having survived several assassination attempts, including airstrikes and firing on his moving vehicle. The last known attempt to liquidate it before the start of the conflict in the Gaza Strip was in 2021.
Khalil al-Haya
He was Yahya Sinuar's deputyand most recently headed the negotiating team of "Hamas" in the indirect ceasefire negotiations with Israel under the supervision of the group's former head, Ismail Haniya, who was killed in late July. According to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Khalil al-Haya was at the same address in Tehran where Haniya was killed by a short-range missile, but was not in the same apartment at the time of the strike. According to the version of the American in. "New York Times" Hania was killed by a bomb explosion.
In 2007, an Israeli strike hit the home of Haya's large family, killing several of his relatives, and an attack on his house in 2014 claimed the life of his eldest son.
Mahmud I Zahar
By profession, Mahmoud az Zahar is asurgeon. His friends and enemies alike call him The General because of his hard-line views on Israel and other opponents of "Hamas". Since the start of the war in Gaza on October 7 last year, there have been no public statements and appearances, and his fate is unknown.
Seventy-nine-year-old Zahar survived an Israeli assassination attempt in 2003. He became the first foreign minister appointed by Hamas when the movement seized power in the Gaza Strip in 2007 after a brief civil war with Palestinian Authority forces, a year after winning parliamentary elections.
Mohammad Shabana
Better known as Abu Anas, he is one of the most senior and experienced surviving Hamas military commanders, commanding a battalion in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. He is known for his important role in the construction of the underground network of tunnels in Rafah, which was used to attack Israeli soldiers along the border, including the 2006 cross-border attack that captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit (held captive in the Gaza Strip for five years , before being exchanged with "Hamas" for over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in 2011).
Shabana took command of the battalion in Rafah after Israel eliminated three of the unit's top commanders during the 2014 Fifty-Day War, in which the Islamist group claimed two Israeli servicemen were captured.
Rauhi Mushtaha
Moushtaha was Yahya Sinuwar's confidant and his staunchest supporter in "Hamas". The two created in the late 1980s the first secret service in the organization, which deals with the tracking and liquidation of Palestinian agents of Israel. He was released from prison together with Yahya Sinuar in 2011 during the exchange with Israel for Gilad Shalit. Recently, he was responsible for coordinating between the group in Gaza and Egyptian security officials on a number of issues, including the transit regime at the "Rafah" border crossing.
Israel announced on October 3 that Mushtaha had been killed in a strike in the Gaza Strip three months earlier. "Hamas" has never confirmed or denied this, and it is therefore unclear what happened to him, according to Reuters.
Source: dariknews.bg