AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): The foundation of the Zionist regime is built on assassination and murder. Since its establishment, Israel has sought to eliminate its opponents through various methods. Despite having a long history in this practice, it was unable to target Hamas leaders in the early days of the Gaza war.
Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported in this regard that since the Al-Aqsa Storm operation, the Israeli regime expanded its efforts to target the political and military leaders of the Hamas movement but failed on many occasions. Even after a long period of the Gaza war, it only managed to target some of them with difficulty.
According to admissions by senior officials of the Zionist regime, at the beginning of the war, the regime faced challenges in reaching Hamas leaders, especially the leaders of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the movement's military wing, because they used various methods to hide themselves from Israeli agents.
Al-Sharq Al-Awsat added that reports indicate the Israeli regime targeted some prominent Hamas military leaders through their connections with their families or meetings with them. The latest of these was Izz al-Din al-Haddad, who assumed leadership of the Al-Qassam Brigades after the assassination of Yahya Sinwar.
A field source in the Hamas movement emphasized that, unlike other war fronts, the Israeli regime, despite its advanced intelligence capabilities, was powerless to target Hamas and Al-Qassam commanders at the beginning of the war.
Families: The Achilles' Heel of Palestinian Resistance Leaders
Four field sources in Hamas emphasized that some Hamas leaders were assassinated after connecting with their families. They stated that these families were under the precise surveillance of Israeli intelligence agencies, and investigations have shown that none of them cooperated with these agencies.
These sources added that each assassination is immediately investigated to identify the errors and security breaches that led to it.
All sources say that after tunnels were targeted by Israeli forces and with the intensification of ground operations during the war, Hamas leaders, its military wing, and leaders of other factions were moved from place to place using various methods, and many of them moved alone with their own security measures.
One operation that revealed the security breach related to families was when Mohammed Deif, the commander-in-chief of the Al-Qassam Brigades, took refuge in a building belonging to Rafa Salama, the commander of the Khan Yunis Battalion. They were both assassinated together in July 2024 while inside that building in Khan Yunis.
According to published reports, the land on which the building stood belonged to Rafa Salama, who had sold it to someone else and later secretly repurchased it. This land was under Israeli surveillance for a while. With the gathering of more information and increased activity around the walled area and heightened security measures, suspicion grew regarding Salama's presence. However, the Israeli regime received several intelligence reports, including one from an individual who frequented this location and delivered messages from other Hamas figures to Salama. This individual spotted Mohammed Deif and turned out to be working for Israeli intelligence. He reported the location, and after days of monitoring and tracking to ensure their joint presence, Israel carried out a massive bombing operation in that area.
Following this, Hamas arrested an individual suspected of cooperating with the Zionist regime. He was a relative of the person who had bought Salama's land for a period, which Salama later secretly repurchased.
Mohammed Deif and the Inability of Israeli Security Agencies to Find Him
During the first four months of the Gaza war, the Israeli regime had no reliable information or new photos of Mohammed Deif. However, they obtained images of him inside Al-Qassam Brigades sites. These images helped them identify him, and they were surprised by his complete well-being.
Israeli sources had previously said in interviews that the Shin Bet had no precise information about Deif's physical condition, believing that he had lost one of his legs or was injured in the leg and moved in a wheelchair. But it turned out that he was healthy, with only his eye and hand having been previously injured.
This is not the first such operation. The Israeli regime assassinated Iman Nofal, one of the commanders of the Al-Qassam Brigades, in the home of one of his relatives, located near his own home in the Al-Bureij camp in central Gaza Strip. This was the first assassination of a prominent Al-Qassam leader in the war; he was martyred on October 17, 2023.
In June 2025, the Zionist regime also assassinated Hakam al-Eisa, a name previously known only to a few. He was known as Abu Omar al-Souri, a Palestinian born in Kuwait and a key figure in expanding Al-Qassam Brigades operations. After being pursued for some time, he was assassinated along with his wife and grandson. This assassination took place in a building where he had met with his family, who were apparently under surveillance.
The Israeli regime also assassinated Hudhaifa al-Kahlout, known as Abu Ubaida, the spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades, along with his wife and children, in August 2025 in an apartment in the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City.
Hamas sources told Al-Sharq Al-Awsat that al-Kahlout remained in the northern Gaza Strip during the war, while his family went to the southern Gaza Strip. After the displaced returned, he met with his family. Shortly after, when the war resumed, he left them and disappeared, but later reappeared and met with them again. It is possible that Israel exploited the movements of his children and wife, tracking and pursuing them to reach him.
These sources stated that investigations have so far not revealed any obvious security breach, such as the presence of an Israeli spy, although it remains possible that technological factors and communication interception led the Israeli regime to him.
On December 13, 2025, Israel assassinated Raed Saad, a prominent commander of the Al-Qassam Brigades, after he left a building belonging to his family where he had gone to meet them. He was in a vehicle when targeted.
Hamas sources say that other field commanders were in similar situations, forced to meet with their families, and this led to their pursuit and assassination. Reports also indicate that they were not with their families in their main homes because their homes had been destroyed during the war
Hamas sources say that no major security violations or breaches have been recorded in these assassinations, but most vulnerabilities stemmed from the continuous surveillance and monitoring of the families and relatives of these leaders. There have also been instances indicating that some individuals cooperated with the Zionist regime in this regard.
The Assassination of Izz al-Din al-Haddad: The Latest Assassination of a Palestinian Leader
The latest terrorist operation carried out by the Israeli regime after a long and intensive pursuit was the assassination of Izz al-Din al-Haddad, which occurred after he met with his family. While Israeli security services claim he was assassinated inside an apartment in the Rimal neighborhood, field sources from the Hamas movement said that after meeting with his wife and daughter in the targeted apartment, he was assassinated inside a vehicle along with his wife and daughter.
According to these sources, there was a gap of more than 15 minutes between the bombing of the apartment and the vehicle. They stated that he had left the apartment with his wife and daughter about 40 minutes before the attack, and they all went to visit his brother. As he was leaving to meet another daughter, his vehicle was targeted. At that time, he was unaware of the apartment bombing; otherwise, he would have abandoned the vehicle and gone elsewhere.
These sources say that the Israeli narrative proves that the regime's intelligence services did not have precise knowledge of al-Haddad's location and exploited surveillance of the families of leaders and field activists, sometimes bombing locations merely on the assumption that leaders might be there.
According to Zionist sources, after days of pursuit and surveillance, al-Haddad was found through his family, who regularly visited his apartment. However, Hamas sources stated that al-Haddad was not in the apartment that day. He waited outside the building for a few minutes for his wife and daughter, then they went by car to visit his brother. He was then on his way to meet another daughter when he was martyred.
According to Hamas sources, many movement leaders and Al-Qassam Brigades commanders went for long periods without contacting their families, except through handwritten letters that arrived late. Among them was Yahya Sinwar, who was suddenly martyred in clashes in Rafah in October 2024.
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