This is one of the main objectives of the heavy Israeli offensive launched on the Gaza Strip: “to eradicate Hamas”, in the words of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Six months after the terrorist attack of October 7, despite successes claimed by the Israeli army, there are still many leaders still alive. And the total elimination of the group seems ambitious to say the least.
A complex organizational chart
To know where Hamas is today, we must first understand how it operates. And its organization is complex. It is divided into two main sections: the political branch and the armed branch, spread over different territories. It is thus present in the Gaza Strip, in the West Bank, but also in Israeli prisons, while certain leaders are exiled abroad, notably in Qatar.
Hamas’ political branch consists of an advisory Shura Council, a sort of parliament of an Islamic state, and a political office. The members of this Parliament, whose list is kept secret, elect the 15 personalities of the political office which determines social, political and military policies, in consultation with the Shura Council.
The Shura is also divided into four regional branches which also elect the members of the regional political offices. Among them, the Gaza Strip office, in which 15 Palestinian activists work, led by Yahya Sinouar.
Around ten high-ranking officials eliminated
Despite their dispersion, the Israeli army managed to eliminate several high-ranking members of the Palestinian Islamist organization. Among them, Marwan Issa, presented by the European Council on International Relations as the deputy head of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the organization. He is considered “one of the organizers of the October 7 massacre”, and his elimination in a strike in Gaza was confirmed by the spokesperson for the Israeli army, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, on March 26. .
Ahmed al-Ghandour And Ayman Nofal were also among the important figures of the armed brigades before being eliminated by Israeli strikes in the fall of 2023.
Saleh al-Arourivice-president of the organization based in Lebanon and considered the leader of the group in the West Bank, close to the military branch of Hamas, was killed at the start of 2024. In total, since October 7 and At the start of the operation launched by Israel, around ten personalities with responsibilities at different levels within Hamas were eliminated.
Priority targets
But several key figures in the organization remain hunted. Mohammed Deif is part of. He is one of the last survivors at the head of the armed wing of Hamas still hidden in the tunnels of the Gaza Strip. Deiff thus constitutes one of the priority targets of the Israeli army. In December, he was placed on the European Union’s blacklist punishing people or organizations involved in “terrorist” acts.
same for me Yahya Sinouar, the leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement in Gaza, which we spoke about above. He is considered the architect of the October 7 attack on Israel and the one who holds the fate of the hostages in his hands. Sinouar was the target of bombings last March without Israeli troops claiming responsibility for his death. He always seems to escape the hunt organized to eliminate him.
Ismail Haniyeh is the president of the general political bureau of Hamas, elected on May 6, 2017, and one of the group’s oldest figures. Residing in Qatar, he seems for the moment out of reach for Tel Aviv, Doha being one of the main interlocutors between the two parties in the truce negotiations. Same deal for Khaled Mechaal. Head of the political office until 2017, he is today the “external” head of the group, based in Qatar.
Our file on the war between Hamas and Israel
Khalil al-Hayya is the deputy head of the Hamas political office in the Gaza Strip, and heads the Palestinian delegation for negotiations regarding a truce in the enclave. He has already escaped several targeted assassination attempts, reports France 24, and is still on the run.
In Gaza, Lebanon, the West Bank, Qatar… Hamas members thus remain dispersed and sometimes seem elusive. An almost impossible mission for the Hebrew State knowing that in addition to being an armed group, Hamas represents an ideology built to survive the death of its leaders.