The “agents hunter” in “Hamas”… Who is Rawhi Mushtaha, whose death Israel announced?

The Israeli army confirmed, on Thursday, that it had assassinated Rawhi Mushtaha, describing him as the head of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, along with the movement’s security officials, Sameh al-Sarraj and Sami Odeh, in strikes approximately three months ago.

Mushtaha, born in 1959 in the Shujaiya neighborhood in Gaza, was seen as a potential political successor to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

Indicative of his prominent role, sources from Hamas explain to Asharq Al-Awsat that Mushtaha “was so important that he was one of the limited figures who knew about the Al-Aqsa Flood operation on October 7 of last year.”

Early in his life, Mushtaha, Khaled al-Hindi and al-Sanwar, commissioned by Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin in 1986, established a security apparatus for the movement called the “Jihad and Preaching Organization,” known as “Majd,” and it was concerned with detecting and prosecuting “agents and spies.”

My soul desires

In 1988, Mushtaha was arrested and remained a prisoner in Israeli prisons for approximately 23 years. He was Sinwar’s companion in the deal to release and exchange Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011. Mushtaha was serving four life sentences on charges of murder and acts of “terrorism.”

Even during his imprisonment, Mushtaha was pursuing “intelligence collaborators” with Israel. He was later accused, along with Sinwar, of “investigating prisoners inside Israeli prisons on charges of working for the Shin Bet in order to provide information about detainees accompanying them.” He was accused of “killing at least two” inside them. .

Since Mushtaha’s release, he has assumed many positions within the Hamas leadership, especially after he was elected as a member in the movement’s first elections for the movement’s political bureau, which took place in 2012. After that, he took over “the file of the martyrs, the wounded, and the prisoners,” and worked to develop a “dedicated internal system” to manage the file, according to what she says. Sources from Hamas told Asharq Al-Awsat.

As the years passed, and after the second session of the Hamas Political Bureau, Mushtaha and Sinwar became more powerful in the movement, and they succeeded in forming what could be described as a “radical wing” led by the prisoners liberated in the Shalit deal inside and outside the Gaza Strip, and they began to control the joints of political action. And the military and security of the movement.

The duo, Mushtaha and Al-Sinwar, demonstrated their increasing strength in the internal Hamas elections in 2017 after delaying them for months for internal technical reasons. They swept the leadership of the Political Bureau in the Gaza Strip. While Sinwar became head of the Political Bureau in Gaza, Mushtaha succeeded in becoming one of its most prominent members and assumed several tasks, including: responsibility for the economic committee responsible for the movement’s financial affairs. Then, after about two years, he assumed the responsibility of coordinating with Egypt.

US terrorist lists

In September 2015, Mushtaha was included on the US terrorist lists, and the same decision included alongside him the leader of Hamas, Yahya Al-Sinwar, and the leader of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Muhammad al-Deif. According to the American designation decision, Mushtaha is a Hamas member known for his role in establishing the “Al-Qassam Brigades.”

In 2015, Mushtaha publicly called on the “Al-Qassam Brigades” to “kidnap more Israelis in order to conclude more prisoner exchange deals to free Hamas members,” according to American accusations. Since his release from Israeli prisons, Mushtaha has maintained a major role, especially in the file. Prisoners, and he was a permanent main element in the Hamas delegations that visited Cairo on tours that continued over the years regarding the exchange of prisoners or the truce. He became responsible for coordination between Hamas and Egypt, specifically since 2019, and settled for years inside Egypt before returning to Gaza. During the internal Hamas elections in 2021.###

How did Israel reach it?

Last August, informed sources revealed to Asharq Al-Awsat that Israel was able to reach Mushtaha and Al-Sarraj, along with three military and security leaders in the movement and its armed wing, after a strike they suffered in a tunnel in Gaza City. Before them, Israel announced the assassination of Marwan Issa, deputy commander of the Al-Qassam Brigades. According to testimonies from field sources that Asharq Al-Awsat spoke to, there are several direct reasons that led to this situation.

The sources explained that “at the beginning of the war, Hamas had a great ability to provide complete security for leaders at various levels inside the tunnels, and to transfer them from one tunnel to another through a complex network of tunnels over long distances and different depths.”

Two Israeli soldiers inside a tunnel in the Gaza Strip (AFP)

They added, “Even above ground, movement from one secure secret apartment to another was much easier than now.” Therefore, Israel was unable to reach the majority of the leadership, but with the passage of time and the destruction of many tunnels, the matter became more difficult.”

More than one source said that it was not expected that Israel would enter into a large and long ground operation of this scope. This enabled it to access many tunnels, which in turn led to many Hamas leaders being forced to leave the tunnels and search for safer places above ground.

In addition to the damage to the tunnels and the communications system, the need to communicate or obtain weapons, money, and food materials prompted some leaders to move openly among the people, in a step that Israel invested in, using some of its collaborators on the ground.

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