With his demise, Mr. Issa, who had been amongst Israel’s most wished males, turned the senior-most Hamas chief to be killed in Gaza for the reason that begin of the warfare. Israeli officers have characterised the strike as a breakthrough of their marketing campaign to wipe out the Hamas management in Gaza.

But consultants cautioned that his demise — which Hamas has nonetheless not acknowledged — wouldn’t have a devastating impact on the armed group’s management construction. Israel has killed Hamas’s political and navy leaders prior to now, solely to see them shortly changed.

Here is a better take a look at Mr. Issa and what his demise means for Hamas and its management.

What was Mr. Issa’s position in Hamas?

Mr. Issa, who was 58 or 59 on the time of his demise, had served since 2012 as a deputy to Mohammed Deif, the elusive chief of the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s navy wing. Mr. Issa assumed the position after the assassination of one other high commander, Ahmed al-Jabari.

Mr. Issa served each on Hamas’s navy council and in its Gaza political workplace, overseen by Yahya Sinwar, the group’s highest-ranking official within the enclave. Mr. Issa was described by Palestinian analysts and former Israeli safety officers as an essential strategist who performed a key position as a liaison between Hamas’s navy and political leaders.

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

Maj. Gen. Tamir Hayman, the previous Israeli navy intelligence chief, stated Mr. Issa was concurrently Hamas’s “defense minister,” its deputy navy commander and its “strategic mind.”

What does his demise imply for the group?

Experts described Mr. Issa as an essential affiliate of Mr. Deif and Mr. Sinwar’s, although they stated his demise didn’t symbolize a menace to the group’s survival.

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

Michael Milshtein, a former Israeli navy intelligence officer and an professional on Palestinian affairs, stated Mr. Issa’s demise was a major blow to the Qassam Brigades, although he conceded it wasn’t “the end of the world” for Hamas.

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

Mr. Milshtein added that although Mr. Issa’s opinion was valued on the highest ranges of Hamas, the very fact he didn’t immediately command fighters meant that his demise didn’t depart a gaping gap in Hamas’s operations.

How has he been described?

Mr. Issa was a lesser-known member of Hamas’s high brass, sustaining a low profile and infrequently showing in public.

Gerhard Conrad, a former German intelligence officer who met Mr. Issa greater than a decade in the past, described him as a “decisive and quiet” individual missing charisma. “He was not very eloquent, but he knew what to say, and he was straight to the point,” Mr. Conrad stated in an interview.

Mr. Conrad stated he met Mr. Issa, Mr. al-Jabari and Mahmoud al-Zahar, one other senior Hamas official, about 10 instances between 2009 and 2011 in Gaza City. The males met as a part of an effort to dealer a prisoner swap between Israel and Hamas.

“He was the master of the data on the prisoners,” Mr. Conrad stated of Mr. Issa. “He had all the names to be negotiated on.”

Mr. Conrad, nonetheless, stated it was obvious on the time that Mr. Issa was a subordinate to Mr. al-Jabari. “He was a kind of chief of staff,” he stated.

Mr. Issa’s prominence grew solely after Mr. al-Jabari’s assassination, however he nonetheless was eager to remain out of view. Few photographs of Mr. Issa are within the public area.

Mr. Awawdeh, the analyst, referred to as Mr. Issa a person who preferred to “remain in the shadows” and who seldom granted interviews to the media.

In one of those rare interviews, Mr. Issa spoke in 2021 about his position within the oblique 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 a future battle with Israel.

“Even if the resistance in Palestine is monitored by the enemy at all hours, it will surprise the enemy,” he informed Al Jazeera on the time.

In a separate interview with a Hamas publication in 2005, Mr. Issa lauded militants who raided Israeli settlements and navy bases, calling the actions “heroic” and an “advanced activity.”

What is understood about his formative years?

Mr. Issa was born within the Bureij space of central Gaza in 1965, however his household hails from what’s now the Ashkelon space in Israel.

A Hamas member for many years, he was concerned with the militant group’s effort of pursuing Palestinians who have been believed to have collaborated with Israel, in accordance with Mr. Awawdeh.

Mr. Issa frolicked in prisons operated by each Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, a spokesman for the Israeli navy, has stated that Mr. Issa helped plan the Hamas-led Oct. 7 assault. Mr. Issa can also be thought to have deliberate operations geared toward infiltrating Israeli settlements throughout the second intifada within the 2000s, Mr. Milshtein stated.