Israel releases rare photo of Hamas commanders in Gaza
The Israeli army Tuesday released an annotation photo of senior Hamas military leaders, in which the army said five of the 11 assembled commanders had been killed.
Among those in the photo whom the army said it had eliminated were the head of Hamas’s air division, two battalion commanders, a brigade commander and a deputy brigade commander.
The rare photo of Hamas leaders, the Israeli military said, was taken as the group hid in a tunnel under a residential area near the Indonesian hospital in the northern Gaza city of Beit Lahia.
An Israeli intelligence unit analyzed the photo after it was seized in Gaza, but did not reveal who initially took the photo. Some details of the photo, including the exact date and location, could not immediately be independently verified.
Israeli forces have been attacking the Hamas leadership since the group launched an attack on southern Israel on October 7, the deadliest day in Israeli history.
Since then, Israel has declared war on Hamas with the intention of destroying the organization. It has besieged Gaza, which the group has controlled since 2007, cutting off civilians from regular supplies of food and fuel and subjecting the strip to a deadly bombing campaign.
“Hamas wanted to tear us apart; we are tearing it apart,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday, after meeting with the families of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza. Netanyahu’s government is under pressure over whether to continue punishing Hamas or broker a new ceasefire that would allow more exchanges.
Israel, he said, in a nod to current strategy, had killed “about half of Hamas’s battalion commanders.” But he did not give the names and details of all the deaths.
The leaders in the photo sit at a long, low table, decorated with fruit, drinks and other food. Beneath the enclave are hundreds of tunnels that Hamas has built to hide and transport weapons, fighters and equipment.
Hamas’s military wing, Al-Qassam, confirmed last month that at least three of the men in the photo had been killed, including Ahmed al-Ghandour, the military leader in northern Gaza known as Abu Anas, and his deputy Wael Rajab. Another was Rafet Salman, a Hamas battalion commander. In November, an Israeli army spokesman said its forces had launched an attack underground area where Mr al-Ghandour had been hiding.
Two other men in the photo that Israel claimed killed, were accused of participating in the planning of the October 7 attacks. One, Asem Abu Rakba, oversaw Hamas’s drone program, the military said.
The killings are a setback for Hamas amid a powerful Israeli invasion that has razed parts of northern Gaza, displaced more than 90 percent of the population and killed more than 15,500 people, according to the United Nations. Gaza Ministry of Health.
Israeli military commanders estimated this week that they had killed several thousand Hamas fighters since the start of the war. Israeli officials said these estimates were based in part on the assumption that between 200 and 250 Hamas fighters had been killed if Israeli forces said they had wiped out a Hamas battalion, and that if a commander was targeted and killed, a team of five or six people would be killed. had died with him. Confirmation that a commander has been killed could take days to arrive, officials said, so the estimate was an “evolving reality.”
According to the Israeli military, about 400 Israeli soldiers have been killed in fighting since October 7.
Israeli forces entered southern Gaza last day in an attempt to find and kill top Hamas leaders believed to be hiding there. That group includes Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, and Mohammed Deif, the head of Qassam’s armed wing.
At one point, Mr. Sinwar and Mr. Deif were thought to be in Khan Younis, the largest city in southern Gaza, where the army and Hamas fighters are engaged in heated urban fighting.
On Wednesday, Mr. Netanyahu said in a video posted on the X platform: “Our troops surround Sinwar’s house. He may escape, but it’s only a matter of time before we reach him.’
Even if Israel succeeds in assassinating the group’s current leaders, there is no guarantee that Israel will achieve its stated goal of eliminating Hamas.
The US has waged wars against Islamic State and Al Qaeda, hitting both terror groups hard but destroying neither.
The Israeli military did not say why it decided to release the annotated photo.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Israeli military also said the Northern Brigade, Hamas’ second largest, had been “significantly damaged.” The Israeli army also claimed that it had also inflicted serious damage on battalions of the Gaza City Brigade.