Since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, assault on Israel, the IDF and Mossad have executed a methodical marketing campaign to remove the terrorist group’s command construction.
From Chairman Yahya Sinwar to army commander Mohammed Deif, Israel has systematically hunted down and killed Hamas’s high political and army management, essentially crippling the group that orchestrated the deadliest assault in Israeli historical past.
The record of Hamas leaders killed by Israel contains Chairman of the Political Bureau Yahya Sinwar, former Political Bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh, army commander Mohammed Deif, Yahya’s brother and senior commander Mohammed Sinwar, Deputy Chief of Navy Operations Marwan Issa, Deputy Chairman of the Political Bureau Saleh al-Arouri, and Khan Younis Brigade Commander Rafa’a Salameh.
Yahya Sinwar, chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau and Gaza chief, was killed on October 16, 2024 in Rafah. His demise got here throughout an opportunity encounter when IDF troops noticed militants leaving a constructing. After Sinwar threw grenades on the troopers, an Israeli tank fired on his place, and a drone later confirmed his demise within the rubble.
Ismail Haniyeh, political chief of Hamas, was assassinated on July 31, 2024, in Tehran, Iran. He was killed inside an IRGC guesthouse after attending Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s inauguration. The operation, believed to have concerned both a missile strike or a remotely detonated explosive hidden in his bed room, uncovered main gaps in Iran’s means to guard high-value figures.
Mohammed Deif, Hamas’s high army commander, was killed on July 13, 2024, in al-Mawasi. Israel dropped eight 2,000-pound bombs on a chosen “protected zone,” focusing on Deif and Khan Younis Brigade commander Rafa’a Salameh. Intelligence reportedly got here from an area postman who had noticed Deif. Israeli quadcopters then struck rescue groups arriving on the scene, killing two civil protection staff.
Mohammed Sinwar, Yahya Sinwar’s brother and a senior Hamas commander, was killed in Could 2025 throughout an Israeli strike close to the European Hospital in Khan Younis. The assault, which killed 28 folks, focused Hamas tunnel networks believed to run beneath the hospital complicated.
Marwan Issa, deputy chief of Hamas’s army operations, was killed on March 10, 2024 in a precision airstrike in Nuseirat. A central determine in Hamas’s command construction, Issa had survived earlier makes an attempt earlier than being eradicated.
Saleh al-Arouri, deputy chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau, was assassinated in January 2024 in Beirut. His demise, in an Israeli airstrike, marked an escalation in focusing on Hamas management exterior Gaza and preceded the wave of high-profile killings that adopted.
Rafa’a Salameh, commander of the Khan Younis Brigade, was killed on July 13, 2024 alongside Mohammed Deif within the al-Mawasi strike. Salameh was a veteran operative who performed a central function within the 2006 cross-border abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and later assumed command of the Khan Younis Brigade in 2016 after Mohammed Sinwar.
In accordance with Israeli assessments, these focused eliminations have systematically dismantled Hamas’s command construction, leaving the group with out its founding management and key operational commanders. The methodical nature of those strikes—spanning from Gaza to Tehran to Beirut—demonstrates Israel’s dedication to carry Hamas accountable for the October 7 bloodbath whereas severely degrading the group’s means to plan and execute future operations.
This marketing campaign represents one of the vital complete efforts to decapitate a terrorist group’s management in fashionable warfare, essentially altering Hamas’s operational capabilities and command hierarchy. The elimination of figures like Sinwar, who masterminded the October 7 assaults, and Deif, the architect of Hamas’s army wing, has left the group struggling to take care of coherent management and strategic path within the face of Israel’s ongoing army stress.
Hamas gained the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections, taking 74 of 132 seats. On October 7, 2023, they carried out a big scale assault that killed about 1,200 folks in Israel and resulted in roughly 251 hostages taken, and Gazans danced within the streets to have fun.
Between 2011 and 2021, OECD knowledge present that member states donated roughly $26.7 billion to Gaza. Over 16 years, Hamas spent tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} designing, digging, and cementing an intensive subterranean tunnel system rivaling London’s Underground or Paris’s Metro.
Hamas has an funding portfolio value about $500 million and an annual army funds estimated at as a lot as $350 million. Since October 7, estimates present Hamas has funneled practically $1 billion into its warfare machine, a lot of it tied to assist manipulation and illicit financial exercise. In accordance with UNOPS, practically 90 p.c of humanitarian assist shipments getting into Gaza have been looted or diverted earlier than reaching civilians.
As of September 2025, about 65,000 Gazans have died, and lots of face starvation even supposing Hamas fighters look like consuming effectively. Hamas has not surrendered and continues to be holding 47 women and men captive in Gaza.
