Marwan Issa

Marwan Abdel Karim Ali Issa (; 1965 – 10 March 2024) was a Palestinian militant who was the deputy commander of Hamas' military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades.

Issa was born in the Bureij refugee camp in the Gaza Strip in 1965. He was educated at the Islamic University of Gaza, and played basketball for Al-Bureij Services Club. His sport ambitions were ended after his arrest in 1987 during the First intifada against the Israeli occupation for his involvement with Hamas. He was later detained by the Palestinian Authority from 1997 to 2000, but released after the outbreak of the Second Intifada. Issa's eldest son died in 2009, when he was aged nine, after he was refused entry from the Gaza Strip to receive medical treatment in Egypt, while another son was killed in 2023 in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.

He became the head of the Qassam Brigades in the refugee camps in the central Gaza Strip and played a central role in the development of its military systems, and reported to Mohammed Deif. He was placed in the terror watchlist of the United States in 2019 and the European Union in 2023. Issa allegedly played a significant role in planning the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel. On 17 March 2024, media reports circulated that he was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Nuseirat during the Israel–Hamas war. Provided by Wikipedia