Hamas de facto PM, other officials eliminated in Gaza airstrike

Military authorities in Israel have announced the killing of Senior Hamas official Rawhi Mushtaha, the de facto prime minister of the Gaza Strip.

He was killed in an Israeli strike several months ago, the IDF said according to Times of Israel.

According to the military, Mushtaha was targeted in a strike in the Gaza Strip three months ago, along with Hamas officials Sameh al-Siraj, who held the security portfolio in Hamas’s political bureau, and Sami Odeh, the head of Hamas’s “general security mechanism.”

However, the IDF is now confirming that the three were eliminated in the strike.

The strike, which was executed by fighter jets, targeted the officials while they were taking refuge in a tunnel in the northern Gaza Strip. The IDF said it had “precise intelligence” indicating the officials were in the tunnel.

The military describes the tunnel as “a fortified and equipped underground compound” that “served as a Hamas command and control center and enabled senior operatives to remain inside of it for extended periods of time.”

Though, the militant group—Hamas has not confirmed the deaths of the senior officials but the IDF said that Hamas is hiding its losses “to prevent loss of morale and functioning of its terror operatives.”

Also, Israeli military command said that Mushtaha was Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s “right-hand man and one of his closest associates.”

Mushtaha and Sinwar served a prison sentence together in an Israeli jail, and later together established Hamas’s general security mechanism, according to the IDF.

“Mushtaha was considered to be the most senior figure in the Hamas political bureau in the Gaza Strip, and during the war maintained civil control of the Hamas regime, while simultaneously engaging in terror activity against Israel,” the military said.

The IDF further revealed he was also “one of Hamas’s most senior operatives, and had a direct impact on decisions relating to Hamas’s force deployment.”

“Mushtaha was involved in military decisions while also acting as the head of Hamas civil governance in the Gaza Strip and holding the prisoners affairs portfolio. He also formerly held the finance portfolio,” the military adds.

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