As the Israeli military is all set to launch a ground invasion in the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) on Tuesday identified the organisational hierarchy of the terror group and vowed to destroy and dismantle Hamas by targeting its top brass, who were "responsible" for the attacks against Israeli civilians.
The IDF posted on X, the entire hierarchy of Hamas and among them were the group's leader Ismail Haniyeh, Yehya Sinwar whom the Israeli military calls the hard-line leader of Hamas in Gaza and El Deif, the alleged mastermind of the October 7 attack.
The extent of the invasion in the Gaza Strip and the time of carrying it out may be affected by operational considerations, as tensions grow on the northern border.
Before Hamas's win in the Palestinian elections against Fatah in 2006, Ismail Haniyeh was not a prominent member of the terror group's leadership. After the electoral victory, his star began to rise. He was appointed Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip, and his wealth grew rapidly, according to The Times of Israel.
The Israeli military calls Yehya Sinwar, the hard-line leader of Hamas in Gaza, the "face of evil." Senior officers say he is the top target for the tens of thousands of Israeli troops poised to invade the coastal enclave and destroy its leadership. Long considered a brutal enforcer within Hamas and an implacable enemy of Israel, Sinwar served more than two decades in Israeli prisons before being released in a 2011 prisoner swap. He emerged as the militant group's leader in Gaza -- its top leadership resides abroad -- in 2017, The New York Times reported.
Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, aka El Deif (the Guest), because, for long, he has stayed in different houses every night to avoid being tracked, and killed, by Israel. He's now in charge of Hamas' military wing, the Al Qassem Brigades. In 1996 El Deif, an accomplished bomb maker, was behind a wave of four suicide attacks that killed 65 people in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and other outrages intended to derail the peace process, CNN reported.
With tens of thousands of soldiers ordered to capture Gaza City and destroy the enclave's current leadership, the Israeli military is preparing to invade the Gaza Strip soon. The military has announced that its ultimate goal is to wipe out the top political and military hierarchy of Hamas.
Meanwhile, the terror group's military spokesman, Abu Obeida, claimed that they were holding between 200 and 250 hostages in Gaza, the Times of Israel reported, adding that while there was no definitive count, due to "security and practical difficulties", it is understood that he captives from the November 7 terror attacks totaling nearly 200.
In a televised statement, Hamas said about 50 others are being held by other "resistance factions elsewhere." Foreign hostages are "our guests," Obeida said, vowing to protect and release them whenever conditions "on the ground" allow for it, Times of Israel reported.
Echoing the IDF's pledge to destroy Hamas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier today told Russian President Vladimir Putin that Israel will 'not stop' until Hamas is destroyed.
"The Prime Minister made it clear that Israel had been attacked by brutal and abhorrent murderers, had gone to war determined and united, and would not stop until it had destroyed Hamas's military and governing capabilities," the Israel PM's office tweeted from its official handle on X.
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