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With his death, Mr. Issa, who was among Israel’s most wanted men, became the most senior Hamas leader to be killed since the Gaza war began. Israeli officials have characterized the attack as a breakthrough in their campaign to wipe out Hamas leadership in Gaza.

But experts warned that his death would not have a devastating effect on Hamas’s leadership structure. Israel has assassinated Hamas’s political and military leaders in the past, only to see them quickly replaced.

Here’s a closer look at Mr. Issa and what his death means for Hamas and its leadership.

What was Mr. Issa’s role in Hamas?

Mr. Issa, who was 58 or 59 at the time of his death, had served since 2012 as a deputy to Mohammed Deif, the elusive leader of the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing. Mr Issa took on the role after the killing of another top commander, Ahmed al-Jabari.

Mr. Issa was a member of Hamas’s military council and its political office in Gaza, overseen by Yahya Sinwar, the group’s top official in the enclave. Mr. Issa was described by Palestinian analysts and former Israeli security officials as a key strategist who played a key role as a liaison between Hamas’ military and political leaders.

Salah al-Din al-Awawdeh, a Palestinian analyst close to Hamas, described Mr. Issa’s position in the group as “part of the front rank of the leadership of the military wing.”

Major General Tamir Hayman, the former head of Israel’s military intelligence, said Mr. Issa was simultaneously Hamas’s “defense minister,” its deputy military commander and its “strategic mind.”

What does his death mean for the group?

Experts described Mr Issa as a key associate of Mr Deif and Mr Sinwar, although they said his death did not threaten the group’s survival.

“There is always a replacement,” Mr Awawdeh said. “I don’t think the killing of any member of the military wing will have an effect on its activities.”

Michael Milshtein, a former Israeli military intelligence officer and an expert on Palestinian affairs, said Mr. Issa’s death was a significant blow to the Qassam Brigades, although he admitted it was not “the end of the world” for Hamas.

“He had a lot of experience,” Mr. Milshtein said. “His death is a great loss for Hamas, but it is not a loss that will lead to its collapse and it will not affect it for a long time. In a week or two they will overcome it.’

Mr. Milshtein added that even though Mr. Issa’s views were valued at the highest levels of Hamas, the fact that he did not directly command fighters meant that his death did not leave a gaping hole in Hamas’s operations.

How is he described?

Mr. Issa was a lesser-known member of Hamas’s top leadership, kept a low profile and rarely appeared in public.

Gerhard Conrad, a former German intelligence officer who met Mr. Issa more than a decade ago, described him as a “decisive and calm” person lacking charisma. “He wasn’t very eloquent, but he knew what to say, and he was straight to the point,” Mr. Conrad said in an interview.

Mr. Conrad said he met Mr. Issa, Mr. al-Jabari and Mahmoud al-Zahar, another senior Hamas official, about a dozen times in Gaza City between 2009 and 2011. The men met as part of an effort to broker a prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas.

“He was the master of prisoner data,” Mr. Conrad said of Mr. Issa. “He had all the names that needed to be negotiated.”

However, Mr Conrad said it was clear at the time that Mr Issa was subordinate to Mr al-Jabari. “He was like a chief of staff,” he said.

It was only after Mr Al-Jabari’s murder that Mr Issa’s fame grew, but he was still keen to stay out of sight. There are few images of Mr. Issa in the public domain.

Mr. Awawdeh, the analyst, called Mr. Issa a man who liked to “stay in the shadows” and who rarely gave interviews to the media.

In one of those rare interviewsMr. Issa spoke in 2021 about his role in the indirect talks that resulted in Israel exchanging more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for a single Israeli soldier, Sgt. First Class Gilad Shalit, and his hopes for future conflict with Israel.

“Even if the resistance in Palestine is watched by the enemy at all times, it will take the enemy by surprise,” he told Al Jazeera at the time.

In a separate 2005 interview with a Hamas publication, Mr. Issa praised the militants who overran Israeli settlements and military bases, calling the actions “heroic” and a “sophisticated activity.”

What is known about his early life?

Mr. Issa was born in 1965 in the Bureij area of ​​central Gaza, but his family comes from what is now the Ashkelon area of ​​Israel.

A member of Hamas for decades, Mr. Awawdeh said he was involved with the militant group involved in the pursuit of Palestinians believed to have collaborated with Israel.

Mr. Issa spent time in prisons operated by both Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Admiral Hagari has said that Mr. Issa helped plan the October 7 Hamas-led attack. Mr. Issa is also thought to have planned operations aimed at infiltrating Israeli settlements during the second intifada in the 2000s, Mr. Milshtein said.