Marwan Abdel Karim Issa / Abu Al-Baraa
The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation announced “The acting Chief of Staff of the Hamas movement, Marwan Issa, was killed last week in an Israeli raid.” The Israeli media reveals new information about the assassination of Muhammad Deif’s deputy. The Commission said that the assassination of Marwan Issa was completed successfully, as it put it.
According to the “This Morning” radio program in Reshet Bet, Hamas confirmed in closed conversations that the senior official was killed in an air force attack about a week ago, and remained buried under the rubble of the tunnel in which he was with the brigade commander of the organization’s central camp. On the other hand, Hamas has not yet commented on these statements.
Issa was the most important target to be targeted since the beginning of the war, and he was considered the No. 3 man on the Israeli Hamas wanted list, after Muhammad Al-Deif, commander of the Al-Qassam Brigades, and Yahya Al-Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza.
Marwan Issa, the shadow man and right-hand man of Muhammad al-Deif, and deputy commander-in-chief of the Martyr Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades and a member of the political and military bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ). He was born in 1965, and his efforts in developing the brigades constituted a real threat to Israel, which placed him on its most wanted list. The Israeli occupation forces arrested him during the first intifada for a period of 5 years (1987-1993), due to his organizational activity within the ranks of Hamas, which he joined at an early age.
Israel said that as long as he remains alive, what it describes as the "war of brains" between it and Hamas will continue. She describes him as a man of “deeds, not words,” and says he was so smart that “he can turn plastic into metal.”
Marwan Abdel Karim Issa - known as Abu Al-Baraa - was born in 1965 in the “Al-Bureij” Palestinian refugee camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip. He grew up carrying the dream of returning to the village from which his family was displaced, “Beit Tima” in the city of Majdal, during the Nakba in 1948.
Issa [= jesus] belonged to the Muslim Brotherhood in his youth, contributed to implementing its advocacy, social and organizational activities, and was distinguished among his peers by his strong build. He emerged as a distinguished basketball player. He was nicknamed “The Palestine Commando,” and he had trips and tours in the stadiums as part of the “Al-Bureij Services Club” team.
However, a sporting career was not destined for him, as the occupation arrested him in 1987 on charges of joining the Hamas movement, and then the Palestinian Authority arrested him in 1997, and he did not leave until after the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000. When he was released, he left sports and made a path that he chose to fulfill his duty to defend the land. He joined the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas movement, and he was 19 years old at the time.
His entry into the movement was at the hands of Ibrahim Al-Maqadma, with whom Abu Al-Baraa used to study weekly in the large mosque inside the camp, and he noticed in him a chivalry and intelligence that distinguished him from his peers.
His experience in prison after he was arrested in the occupation cells shaped the Al-Qassami idea, so he joined it immediately after his release, and since he joined it, he rose through its positions until he became one of the heads behind the decisions of operations and battles, independently or in consultation with Yahya Al-Sinwar, the leader of the movement in Gaza.
Abu Al-Baraa was in the batch that participated in a series of martyrdom operations in 1996 in retaliation for the assassination of engineer Yahya Ayyash, along with a number of prominent figures in the movement such as Al-Deif, Hassan Salama, and others. He was subsequently arrested for 4 years, before being released after the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000.
After his release from the authorities' prisons, Issa played a pivotal role in moving the Al-Qassam Brigades from semi-military cells organized on the basis of a military structure, to battalions, units, and brigades according to a clear military hierarchy. He remained unknown until he was officially announced as one of “the names of the leaders of the first row of the Qassam Brigades” in the statement it published in September 2005, 10 days before the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
During the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, Al-Qassam published a special bulletin called “Dawn of Victory,” which contained interviews with a number of Al-Qassam leaders, in which Marwan Issa was identified as “the one in charge of settlement operations,” and he talked about the nature of these operations, the idea of which was planted by Salah Shehadeh, the former commander-in-chief of the Phalange, and commented. Issa "We decided to take the battle to the settlers' homes."
Abu Al-Baraa explained the mechanism of settlement raids, which require “effort, arduous training, and continuous preparation” from the resistance fighters, as they begin with monitoring and control operations that may extend for weeks. Then everything collected was sent to the General Command, which discusses the details and forms a committee to study the possibility of implementing the operation in terms of “investigating "The greatest possible success and the least possible losses."
Israeli reports indicated that Abu Al-Baraa’s efforts were in two directions during the years of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, the first in structuring the Al-Qassam Brigades and organizing its army divided into brigades, battalions and groups, and the second in filling the void after the assassination of engineer Adnan Al-Ghoul in 2004, to come up with a project for local manufacturing to serve the resistance by land, sea and air. .
Due to his prominent role in the movement, especially after the second intifada, he became pursued by Israel, which listed his name among the most wanted for assassination, and attempted to assassinate him during a meeting of the General Staff in 2006 with Al-Deif and the leaders of the first echelon of the Al-Qassam Brigades, but he left injured and the occupation’s goal of liquidating him was not achieved.
Israeli warplanes also destroyed his house twice during the aggression against Gaza in 2014 and 2021, an aggression in which his brother Wael was martyred. During the siege on the Gaza Strip in 2009, his 9-year-old son, Baraa, suffered from kidney failure. Despite this, he was prevented from traveling for treatment outside Gaza, and he died as a result, becoming the 359th martyr as a result of the siege imposed on the Strip since 2007.
His face was not known before 2011, when he appeared in a group photo taken during the reception of the prisoners released in the “Loyalty of the Free” deal in exchange for the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. It included Khaled Mashal, Saleh Al-Arouri, and Ahmed Al-Jaabari, and Israel claimed that the person next to them was in the middle of the photo. He was Marwan Issa.
“Settlement Operations Officer” Abu Al-Baraa demonstrated his tactics and efforts in planning incursions in the Gaza battles that were fought from “Shale Stones” in 2012 to “Al-Aqsa Flood” in 2023, as the strength of the ground forces, intelligence and technology, the extent of organized and precise planning, and special interest in incursions were evident. Settlements and security headquarters.
In the battle of “Al-Aqsa Flood,” his strategies and methodology appeared in directing the special forces and “commandos” on land and sea, as they penetrated the border fence with Gaza and stormed the settlements in the envelope to a depth of 40 kilometers. He contributed to the development of the movement's weapons and directed efforts therein until they developed tremendous development, increasing the missiles' reach and destructive capacity, and moving the battalions on many occasions from defense mode to attack mode.
Due to its interest in developing the military aspect of equipment and personnel, the movement possessed drones, formed elite forces, dug attack tunnels, and formed a naval commando unit that carried out several attacks on the coast in Ashkelon, inflicting heavy losses on Israel.
In addition to his military experience, Issa had political experiences in which he played a prominent role. In 2015, he appeared at a scientific symposium in Gaza organized by Rabat University College affiliated with the Ministry of Interior, during which he spoke about Hamas’ efforts to strengthen its power and formulate alliances with those who could supply it with weapons.
He commented on an Egyptian court’s decision to classify Hamas as a “terrorist organization,” saying that “all regional and international attempts to besiege Hamas and its military arm will fail.” Indeed, the court retracted and canceled its decision 3 months after this statement. In 2017, Abu Al-Baraa arrived in Egypt as part of a military-political delegation to engage in negotiations on the exchange of prisoners, and his visits were repeated in subsequent years to discuss files related to prisoners, the truce, and crossings.
In the same year, he was elected a member of the Political Bureau, representing the military wing of the movement, and in 2019 he was included on the US terrorist lists. Then he was re-elected to the same position in 2021 and appeared in the group photo of the office members wearing a mask. In June of the same year, Abu Al-Baraa appeared as a guest on the program “What is Hidden is Greater” - broadcast by Al Jazeera - speaking about the cards that the resistance possesses and through which it can conclude a successful exchange deal. It appeared twice later in 2022 in two documentaries released by Al-Qassam on the first anniversary of the Battle of Saif Al-Quds.
In March 2023, Marwan Issa warned of an “earthquake hitting the region” if the Al-Aqsa Mosque was attacked, and said that Israel “ended the Oslo Accords, and that the coming days will be full of events,” which was what actually happened when the Battle of “Al-Aqsa Flood” was announced on October 7. /October 2023.
On 12 March 2024 the Israeli army announced that it targeted the second man in the Al-Qassam Brigades - the military arm of Hamas, Marwan Issa, in an air strike on a site in the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip. The Israeli army said that it was still trying to confirm whether Issa was killed Informed Palestinian sources in the Gaza Strip confirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat that the senior commander of the Al-Qassam Brigades, Marwan Issa, was actually in the area targeted by the Israeli army in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip, in an attempt to assassinate him, and he was injured, but His fate was not clear. The sources added: “Initially, his infection was confirmed. He was injured, but his condition was currently unknown. The whole situation was complicated.”
Israel was trying to verify the fate of Issa, who was the most important person it has targeted so far. Security officials informed the Israeli government ministers, during the security cabinet meeting, on Friday, that “all indications point to the killing of the deputy commander of the military wing of the Hamas movement in the central Gaza Strip, Marwan Issa, in an Israeli army raid earlier this month.”
Hebrew media reports stated that indications from the Israeli security services were increasing regarding the killing of Issa. The Israeli website Ynet quoted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as saying, in response to the security briefing on Issa, that it was “a great achievement for Israel.” The Israeli army had previously confirmed that Issa had been targeted in a raid on Nuseirat in central Gaza, last Monday, but the army did not have sufficient information at the time to confirm the success of the operation. According to Israel and Hamas, the details surrounding the strike were still under scrutiny.
Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hajari said in a press conference that Israel bombed the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza on Saturday night after receiving intelligence information about Issa’s location. He added that two Hamas leaders, Issa and another official responsible for Hamas weapons in Gaza, used a tunnel under the camp grounds that was bombed by Israeli aircraft in a joint operation with the Internal Security Agency (Shin Bet). He continued, saying, “There were other terrorists with them in the tunnel,” but added that it was not yet clear whether Issa had been killed. A Palestinian source said that the Israelis targeted a location where they believed Issa was hiding, but did not give any details about his fate.
Security officials briefed ministers during the 15 March 2024 security cabinet meeting that all indications suggest Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of Hamas's military wing in the central Gaza Strip, was killed in an IDF strike earlier in the week. Hebrew media reports detailed the briefing, highlighting a potential blow to Hamas leadership. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the news with optimism, hailing it as "a great achievement for Israel," according to quotes from Ynet.
If Marwan Issa's death was confirmed, he will be the highest-ranking Hamas leader killed by Israel in the war that has been going on for more than five months and has destroyed the Palestinian Strip and killed thousands. It was noteworthy that Issa was called the “Shadow Man” due to his ability to hide from the eyes of Israel. He was among three Hamas leaders who planned the October 7 attack, and are believed to be managing the movement’s military operations within the framework of the ongoing war since the attack.
Positions and responsibilities
- Member of the Hamas Political Bureau in 2017, then re-elected in 2021.
- One of the architects of the “Wafa Al-Ahrar” deal in 2011.
- One of the officials responsible for developing the military capabilities of Al-Qassam.
- He participated in rebuilding the Al-Qassam Brigades with Salah Shehadeh in 2000.
- The second man in the Phalange (Deputy Commander-in-Chief, Muhammad Al-Deif), succeeding Ahmed Al-Jaabari in 2012.
- He was the link between the military leadership and the political leadership.
- One of the leaders responsible for any prisoner exchange deal with the occupation.
- Responsible for settlement operations in the Al-Qassam Brigades
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