Netanyahu hints: Israel killed Hamas No. 3 Marwan Issa, confirms Arouri killed by Israeli airstrike

Amid intense media speculation that Israel managed to kill Hamas’ No. 3 leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday hinted the reports may be true while seemingly also confirming that the IDF eliminated Saleh al-Arouri, the terror group’s No. 4, in January.

The Israeli media landscape has been abuzz since Monday morning with rumors that Hamas’ No. 3, the arch-terrorist and member of the terror group's leading trio, Marwan Issa, was killed in an airstrike in the Gaza Strip.

Later in the day, the IDF censors allowed the media to report that last Saturday, a joint operation with the Shin Bet tried to eliminate Issa with several airstrikes in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza. The IDF didn’t confirm whether the operation was successful.

Palestinian sources reported that several people were killed on Saturday during unusually intense airstrikes in the area, adding that Issa had not been heard from since.

Several hours later, Netanyahu hinted that Issa had indeed died in a video statement.

“We are on the way to total victory. On the way to this victory, we already eliminated number four in Hamas. Three, two, and one are on the way,” the prime minister said, adding, “They are all dead men, we will reach them all.”

Hamas’ No. 4 was widely considered to be Saleh al-Arouri, deputy chief of Hamas’ Politburo and one of the founders of the group’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades.

He was killed in an airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon last January, with Hamas and Hezbollah blaming Israel for the strike. Netanyahu’s comments are seen as the first official confirmation of Israel’s role in Arouri’s death.

Marwan Issa, (59), is considered Hamas’ No. 3 and deputy to the leader of the Qassam Brigades, Muhammad Deif. Both answer to Yahya Sinwar, the top Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, who is believed to be the mastermind behind the Oct. 7 attacks.

Issa has been a terrorist for decades and was among Hamas’ founding members. After a stint in Israeli prison, he was released just before the Second Intifada began in 2000 and immediately returned to terror activity.

While Issa has rarely appeared in public, he is believed to be responsible for directly planning numerous terror attacks in Israel in recent decades, KAN News reported.

“If Marwan Issa was indeed eliminated, then this is a significant achievement,” Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Tamir Hayman, the former head of the IDF Intelligence Corps, wrote on 𝕏.

“This is a multi-tasking man who held three positions at the same time. He was the ‘Defense Minister’ of Hamas, a member of the Hamas government. In addition, he was the ‘deputy chief of staff,’ the deputy head of the military arm. And perhaps most importantly, he was the strategic brain of Hamas,” Hayman wrote.

“Beyond that, he was a close interlocutor of Sinwar. He was his balance and was largely able to control Sinwar’s mental frenzies. As a very good friend of Deif, he was the link between Sinwar and Deif. So it’s true, the public doesn’t know him, but sometimes the ‘glue’ of the trio is almost as important as its leader.”