Hamas said Israel assassinated three top leaders and the commander of the unit

The military branch of Hamas announced on Sunday that three other senior leaders including Ahmed Al-Ghandour, the commander of the group’s northern brigade, had died in Israel’s operation against the Islamist movement.

The Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades issued a statement identifying Ghandour as a member of its military council and listing the names of three other officials who had passed away, among them Ayman Siyyam, the commander of the Brigades’ rocket-firing sections, according to Israeli media reports.

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The statement did not specify when they were slain, but it claimed, “We swear to Allah we will continue their path and that their blood will be a light for the mujahedeen and a fire for the occupiers.” Ghandour, whose real name was Abu Anas, was placed on an economic sanctions blacklist by the US in 2017 after being classified as a “specially designated global terrorist”.

He was identified by the State Department as a former member of Hamas’ political bureau and Shura council. It stated that Ghandour “has been involved in many terrorist operations,” citing an incident in 2006 that resulted in the deaths of two Israeli soldiers and the injuries of four more against an Israeli military outpost at the Kerem Shalom border crossing.

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Following that attack, Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was abducted. He was imprisoned by Hamas for five years before being released in 2011 in return for the release of 1,027 Palestinian prisoners. The declaration was made on the third day of a four-day ceasefire in Gaza that started on October 7, when Israeli officials said that Hamas militants poured into southern Israel, murdering 1,200 people and kidnapping another 240 others.

According to Gaza’s Hamas-led government, Israel retaliated against Hamas with a bombing and land campaign that has killed up to 15,000 Palestinians, the majority of whom were civilians. Under the terms of the halt agreement, Hamas has so far freed 78 Palestinian detainees from Israeli custody in exchange for the return of 26 Israeli captives in two groups.