Hamas' 3rd leader announced killed in action
Hamas leader Marwan Issa died in an Israeli air strike, White House official Jake Sullivan has said.
As deputy military commander, Marwan Issa would be Hamas's most senior leader to die since the war began on 7 October.
Hamas has not officially commented on reports of Marwan Issa's death.
Israeli media have reported that Issa was killed in a strike on a tunnel complex under the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza last week.
The deputy commander of Hamas's military wing - the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, was considered one of Israel's most-wanted men.
The European Union, which placed the Hamas leader on its terrorist blacklist, linked him directly to the 7 October attack led by the group which killed approximately 1,200 people.
Issa had been jailed by Israel for five years during the first Palestinian intifada, or uprising, and detained by the Palestinian Authority in 1997 until the start of the second intifada in 2000.
The White House's national security adviser Jake Sullivan, said other Hamas leaders were believed to be in hiding, "likely deep in the Hamas tunnel network" in Gaza.
He pledged that the US would aid Israel in its continued hunt for top Hamas leaders.
