A third-ranking commander of the Hamas terrorist group had been killed in an Israeli airstrike of an underground compound in central Gaza, United States authorities confirmed on Monday.

Israel’s military said on 11 March that the airstrike targetted Marwan Issa on 9 to 10 March, describing him as one of the planners of Hamas’ 7 October attacks on Israel.

Issa was a deputy of Mohammed Deif, who heads Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Israel’s military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said at the time.

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Israel had “broken a significant number of Hamas battalions, killed 1000s of Hamas fighters including senior commanders.”

“The rest of the top leaders are in hiding, likely deep in the Hamas tunnel network, and justice will come for them too,” Sullivan added.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sent a team to Washington to discuss how to avoid an all-out assault by Israeli troops in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

“I asked the Prime Minister to send a team to Washington to discuss ways to target Hamas without a major ground operation in Rafah,” Biden said on X after speaking to Netanyahu for the first time in more than a month.

The team of senior Israeli officials will discuss with Biden “alternative approaches that would target key elements of Hamas,” according to Sullivan.

Roughly 1.5 million Palestinians are sheltering in Rafah, most of them displaced by Israel’s relentless assault on other parts of Gaza since the Hamas attacks on Israel.

The White House earlier said Biden had warned Netanyahu that an offensive on Rafah would be a “mistake,” in their first call since 15 February.

“A major ground operation there would be a mistake,” Sullivan told reporters.

WITH AFP