Who was Rafa Salama, the Hamas military commander 'killed by Israel'?

Israel's military claimed to have killed a senior Hamas commander in its massive air strike on a camp for displaced people in south Gaza on Saturday, which killed dozens of Palestinian civilians.

The massacre at the Al-Mawasi coastal humanitarian zone, which killed 90 Palestinians and injured hundreds, rounded off a deadly week for Palestinians and prompted global condemnation.

Israel said it had been aiming to kill Mohammed Deif, the senior commander of Hamas’s Qassam Brigades, who is also believed to be the orchestrator of the 7 October attacks on southern Israel.

However, on Sunday Israel's military and the Shin Bet, the domestic intelligence agency, claimed that one of Deif's associates, Rafa Salama, was assassinated in the strike that was allegedly based on "precise intelligence".

Following the attacks on Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that there was still "no conclusive certainty that the two [Deif and Salama] have been foiled, but I want to assure you that one way or another we will reach the top of Hamas".

Hamas on Sunday said Deif was "fine" and an official from the movement said he was "well and directly overseeing" operations.

The group also refuted Israel's justifications for the attack, stating that "[Israel's] claims about targeting leaders are false... to cover up the scale of the horrific massacre".

The Palestinian group did not confirm or deny the claims of Salama's death.

Strike on Salama home in Al Mawasi

Israel's strike on Saturday reportedly hit the Salama family home in Al-Mawasi and it had been monitored by Israeli intelligence for weeks, according to a report from The New York Times.

Citing unnamed Israeli officials, the report said that Deif had also been present at the family's compound in recent weeks - at times when the leader was not hiding underground. Additionally, Israeli intelligence found that Deif had been at the compound as recently as Friday, which prompted the Israeli government to sign off on the attack for the following day.

Footage and testimonies from Gaza in the aftermath of the strike showed burnt out tents and belongings, with dozens of wounded children, elderly, and women being taken to overwhelmed Nasser Hospital nearby, which struggled to deal with the casualties.

Salama worked as a military commander for the Qassam Brigades in the southern city of Khan Younis and his uncle Jawad Abu Shamala was a member of Hamas’ political bureau and reportedly close to the group's leader in Gaza, Yayha Sinwar.

According to The New Arab’s Arabic language sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, other members of Salama’s family have been killed in the past by Israel, including his mother and uncle, both of whom died at the start of the current war.

Israel has accused Salama of being responsible for previous attacks against Israeli soldiers, including the ‘Omar Tabash’ operation in 2005, the ‘Ahmed Abu Tahoun’ operation in 2007 and the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2006, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported.

Salama has allegedly been close to death in the past, including in 2021 when Israeli forces destroyed his house in Gaza.

Israeli targets 

Before joining Qassam, Salama worked at a school in Khan Younis, according to reports.

Despite, nearly ten-months of fighting in Gaza, Israel has failed to kill any of Hamas’s top leaders who have been on the country’s hit list for years.

US officials said that one of Israel’s most wanted men, senior Hamas commander Marwan Issa, died in an air strike in central Gaza in March, which would be the most significant military figure killed since the start of the war in October.

Israel’s invasion has killed more than 38,000 Palestinians and injured tens of thousands more, with nearly all the enclave’s 2.3 million population displaced and living in camps.