Israeli Assassinations of Top Hamas and Hezbollah Officials

Israel killed more than three dozen senior Hamas and Hezbollah officials in the 10 months after the Gaza war erupted on Oct. 7, 2023. Most died in airstrikes in Gaza and Lebanon. The most daring operation was carried out in Tehran, more than 1,000 miles east of Israel. The Mossad intelligence agency reportedly assassinated the Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, with a remotely-detonated bomb smuggled into a guesthouse months in advance. 

Hezbollah Losses

Israeli airstrikes killed more than three dozen senior Hezbollah commanders in Lebanon—as well as almost 400 fighters—in the 10 months after the Gaza war erupted on Oct. 7, 2023. The commanders were largely from two units, according to the Alma Research and Education Center in Israel. More than a third were from Hezbollah’s Southern Front, the unit responsible for operations along the 50-mile southern border with Israel. Almost a third were affiliated with the Radwan unit, Hezbollah’s special forces. Most of those Israeli airstrikes were conducted south of the Litani River. They appeared to be largely tit-for-tat operations—calibrated to avoid sparking a full-scale war—that also stopped short of attacking the upper echelons of Hezbollah’s military leadership.

The dynamics shifted in July 2024, when an Israeli airstrike killed Fuad Shukr, who served on Hezbollah’s Jihad Council and was a close advisor to leader Hassan Nasrallah, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, the Lebanese capital. Israel blamed Shukr for an attack on Majdal Shams—a Druze town in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights--that killed 12 children and teenagers on July 27.

Shukr had also long been wanted by the United States for a major role in the 1983 suicide bombing of the Marine peacekeepers that killed 241 U.S. military personnel. Treasury sanctioned Shukr in 2015. The State Department designated him a “specially designated global terrorist” in 2019. The U.S. Rewards for Justice program offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest. The following is a list of senior Hezbollah commanders killed in Israeli operations between October 2023 and July 2024.  

Jan. 8, 2024: Wissam Hassan al Tawil, a senior commander in Hezbollah’s Radwan unit, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the village of Majdel Selm. He was responsible for the strike on Israel’s Mount Meron just before his death, and previously facilitated weapons transfers to the Syrian Arab Army and the Houthis in Yemen.  

Jan. 9, 2024: Ali Hussein Burji, the Hezbollah aerial force commander in southern Lebanon, was killed in an Israeli drone strike near the town of Khirbet Selm.  

Feb. 15, 2024: Ali Muhammad al Debes, a senior commander in the Radwan unit, and his deputy Hassan Ibrahim Issa were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a building in Nabatieh. Al Debes reportedly planned and facilitated the deadly attack at Megiddo junction in Israel.  

March 21, 2024: Qassem Saqlawi, commander of the rocket and missile array in Hezbollah's Coastal Sector, was killed in an Israeli airstrike.  

March 29, 2024: Ali Abed Akhsan Naim, the deputy commander of Hezbollah’s rocket and missiles unit, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Bazourieh. 

March 31, 2024: Ismail al Zin, senior commander in the anti-tank missile unit of Hezbollah’s Radwan unit, was killed by an Israeli warplane in the village of Kounine.  

April 8, 2024: Ali Ahmad Hassin of Hezbollah’s Radwan unit was killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon. 

April 16, 2024: Ismail Yusef Baz, Hezbollah coastal commander, and Muhammad Hossein Matzafa Shouri, rocket and missile unit commander in the Radwan unit, were killed in an Israeli drone strike near Ain Baal.  

April 23, 2024: Muhammad Attiya, a member of Hezbollah’s Radwan unit, was killed in an Israeli overnight strike in southern Lebanon. A separate Israeli airstrike killed aerial defense engineer Hussein Azkoul and another Hezbollah operative. 

May 15, 2024: Hussein Makki, a senior commander in Hezbollah’s Southern Front unit, was killed in an Israeli drone strike near Tyre. Makki previously commanded Hezbollah’s coastal division and facilitated several attacks against Israel.  

June 12, 2024: Sami Taleb Abdullah, a senior commander, and two other Hezbollah operatives were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the town of Jouaiyya. Abdullah was one of the highest-ranking Hezbollah commanders in southern Lebanon.  

June 20, 2024: Abbas Ibrahim Hamza Hamada, a Hezbollah field commander in southern Lebanon, was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Jouaiyya. 

July 3, 2024: Mohammad Naameh Nasser, head of Hezbollah’s Aziz unit, was killed in an Israeli airstrike near the southern city of Tyre.  

July 8, 2024: Mustafa Hassan Salman, an operative in Hezbollah's Rockets and Missiles Unit, was killed in an overnight strike from an Israeli aircraft in the Qlaileh area of southern Lebanon.  

July 9, 2024: Yasser Nemr Qranbish, a former bodyguard of Hezbollah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli strike on a car in Syria near the border with Lebanon. He had facilitated weapons shipments to the group. 

July 30, 2024: Fuad Shukr, a top Hezbollah military commander, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in Haret Hreik, a southern suburb of Beirut and a Hezbollah stronghold. Shukr served on the Jihad Council, Hezbollah’s highest military body. He had played a central role in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine Corps Barracks in Beirut. Israel alleged that he was responsible for the rocket attack on the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on July 27 that killed 12 children and teenagers. 

Hamas Losses

During the first 10 months of the Gaza war, Israel killed at least eight senior Hamas military and political officials. The targeted assassinations included the daring operation that killed Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and an airstrike that killed chief military commander Mohammed Deif in a Palestinian camp, both in July 2024. In January, Mossad chief David Barnea vowed that Israel was “committed to settling accounts” with everyone involved—“directly or indirectly,” including “planners and envoys”—in the Hamas invasion of Gaza. “It’ll take time, as it took time after the Munich massacre, but we will put our hands on them wherever they are,” he said, referring to the murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics.

The military commanders were part of the Izz ad-Din al Qassam Brigades, the military unit named for a Muslim preacher in the 1930s who opposed the British occupation. Established in 1991, the Qassam Brigades have targeted Israel with rockets, in suicide bombings, and cross-border raids. The following is a rundown of the Israeli assassinations. 

Oct. 17, 2023: Ayman Nofal, a key member of the General Military Council, was killed in an Israeli airstrike. Nofal also coordinated attacks on Israel with other Palestinian factions. 

Oct. 19, 2023: Jamila al Shanti, the first woman elected to the Hamas political bureau, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City. Shanti was the widow of Hamas co-founder Aziz al Rantisi and founder of the Hamas women’s wing. 

Oct. 31, 2023: Ibrahim Biari, the commander of the Jabaliya Battalion responsible for operations in northern Gaza, was killed in an Israeli airstrike that also killed at least 126 civilians. Israel claimed Biari dispatched the fighters that raided southern Israel on Oct. 7. For two decades, he had also organized rocket attacks on Israel military and civilian targets. 

Nov. 21, 2023: Khalil Kharaz, the deputy chief of the Qassam Brigades in Lebanon, was killed by an Israeli drone strike on a car carrying Hamas fighters near Tyre.

Dec. 25, 2023: Saleh al Arouri, a co-founder of the Hamas military wing in the West Bank and a deputy political leader, was killed along with two other Hamas officials in an Israeli drone strike on a Hamas office in southern Beirut. Arouri was key intermediary between Hamas and Hezbollah.  

March 10, 2024: Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of the Hamas military wing in Gaza, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Nuseirat refugee camp. He reportedly was one of the key planners of the October 7 attacks. 

July 13, 2024: Mohammed Deif, the top Hamas military commander, reportedly died in an airstrike on Khan Younis in southern Gaza that also killed at least 90 other Palestinians and injured over 300. Hamas claimed that he survived. He was reportedly the mastermind of the Oct. 7 attack that killed more than 1,100 Israelis and foreigners. 

July 31, 2024: Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the Hamas political office, died while visiting Iran for the inauguration of President Masoud Pezeshkian. He was reportedly killed by a bomb smuggled into the Iranian compound months before his visit and detonated by remote control. Haniyeh was the chief negotiator – through Qatar and Egypt – with Israel and the United States on terms for a ceasefire and hostage release. He was based in Doha.