National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan confirms Israel killed top Hamas commander

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U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Monday confirmed reports that Israel has killed a top Hamas commander. Speaking to reporters, Sullivan said Israel has made "significant progress" against Hamas, having broken battalions and killed thousands of Hamas fighters. Among those thousands of fighters was Hamas’ third in command, Marwan Issa, who was killed in an Israeli operation last week.

"The rest of the top leaders are in hiding, likely deep in the Hamas tunnel network, and justice will come for them too," Sullivan said. Sullivan is the first government official to confirm Issa’s death. His comments come hours after Israeli forces launched a raid on Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, accusing Hamas militants of using it as a base. The military said it killed Faiq Mabhouh, Hamas’ top official in internal security. An IDF soldier was also killed in the operation.

The military said Mabhouh operated and directed militant activity from inside the hospital compound. Gaza's Health Ministry, meanwhile, accused the Israeli army of directing gun and missile fire at a building used for specialized surgeries. Sullivan said it "was clear" that Hamas fighters were firing back at Israeli troops from the hospital.

"We have seen Hamas over the course of this conflict use civilian facilities, including hospitals, to store weapons for command and control and to house fighters," Sullivan said. "And that places an added burden on Israel that very few militaries have to deal with, an entrenched insurgency, using the shield of civilian institutions to protect themselves during a fight, rather than meeting Israel on some open field to battle." Israel raided the same medical center in November after claiming that Hamas was concealing a major command and control center within and beneath the compound. It revealed a tunnel running to an underground bunker beneath the hospital, and some weapons discovered inside. The ministry says around 30,000 people are sheltering at the hospital, including patients, medical staff and people who have fled their homes seeking safety.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, Israel's chief military spokesman, said the patients and medical staff could remain in the compound and that a safe passage was available for civilians to leave. Sullivan’s comments come amid growing concerns within the Biden administration over Israel’s prospective offensive in the southern city of Rafah, where roughly 1.5 million Palestinians have taken refuge to escape the worst of the conflict in the north.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed Monday to send a team of Israeli officials to Washington to discuss the matter with Biden administration officials. "We've arrived at a point where each side has been making clear to the other its perspective," Sullivan said. Earlier Monday, Biden and Netanyahu had their first interaction in over a month. Sullivan said Biden questioned the Israeli leader over a lack of a "coherent and sustainable strategy' to defeat Hamas.

Biden administration officials have warned that they would not support an operation in Rafah without the Israelis presenting a credible plan to ensure the safety of innocent Palestinian civilians. Israel has yet to present such a plan, according to White House officials. After the call, Netanyahu issued a statement, not indicating there were any tensions.

"We discussed the latest developments in the war, including Israel's commitment to achieving all of the war's goals: Eliminating Hamas, freeing all of our hostages and ensuring that Gaza never (again) constitutes a threat to Israel — while providing the necessary humanitarian aid that will assist in achieving these goals," Netanyahu said. Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry, which doesn't differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, says more than 31,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war. Roughly two-thirds of whom are women and children, according to the Ministry’s estimates. Israel has disputed these figures.

Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people and took another 250 people hostage in the surprise Oct. 7 attack out of Gaza that triggered the war. Hamas is still believed to be holding some 100 captives, as well as the remains of 30 others.

 

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Too much death and destruction

 

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As it turns out, they got the 7 top commanders in that strike.

Great work israel!

 

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Entire IRGC command wing in Syria was eliminated in strike, Bloomberg reveals​

The Bloomberg television network revealed overnight into Saturday that in the attack attributed to Israel at the Iranian consulate in Syria, the entire command hierarchy responsible for the activities of the Revolutionary Guards in Syria and Lebanon was killed. According to the report, "the senior officers were pivotal for Hezbollah's activities in the region." According to the reports, General Mohammad Reza Zahedi and his deputy, Mohammad Hadi Rahimi, along with other officers who were killed, were certain that the consulate building next to the embassy was "the safest" in Damascus and that Israel would not dare to attack the site.

Before the airstrike on the consulate building in Damascus, the residences of the ambassador and the consul were supposed to be transferred to a new apartment complex further down the same street, where the two brothers of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad also live. Shortly before the attack, the senior ranking officials of the IRGC in Syria met on the second floor of the consulate building and decided to stay there.

The strike at the Iranian consulate in Syria led Iran, for the first time, to respond directly and attack Israel. Immediately after the assassination, Iran began suspecting that groups in Syria were involved in several assassination cases of IRGC personnel in the country over the past few years.

Iran’s suspicion focuses on 18 commanders who were assassinated over a short time in attacks that were attributed to Israel. This is according to a Syrian defector who opposed the Assad regime, who claims to have spoken with an Iranian official.

According to the Syrian defector, after the assassination of Raza Musawi in Syria in December 2023, a joint investigation between the two countries began, attempting to trace a possible security breach. However, at a certain point, Iran chose to conduct an independent investigation with Hezbollah, following concerns that the Syrian intelligence was interfering with the investigation.

The independent investigation concluded that the security breaches that led to the assassination were under high-level political and security cover, and it was unlikely that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was unaware of them.

The defector further added that what heightened suspicions in Tehran was that the Hezbollah operatives who were assassinated in the country were linked to Syrian security services. Their assassination was possible through espionage, using advanced technology.

 

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