This week, Israel assassinated two senior members of Hamas’s political bureau in Gaza – Salah al-Bardawil and Ismail Barhoum. This brings to five the number of members of the Political Bureau who have been killed since the IDF resumed attacks on the Gaza Strip on March 18.

Before the assassination of al-Bardawil and Barhoum, who were killed within 24 hours in an attack on Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, three other members of the Political Bureau were killed: Muhammad al-Jamasi, Aitzam al-Daalis, and Yasser Hareb, in three separate targeted assassinations carried out with the resumption of fighting.

Al-Bardawil was a member of the Ministry of National Relations, Barhoum was responsible for the financial sector, while al-Jamasi was part of the legal department. Al-Daalis served as head of the economic sector in Gaza and later ran the government apparatus, while Hareb was responsible for organizational leadership in the northern Gaza Strip.

During the first months after Hamas' attack on the communities surrounding Gaza on October 7, 2023, Israel had difficulty reaching the organization's leaders. However, within a few months, it began a series of targeted assassinations, some of which occurred within a short period of time of each other.

Among the leaders killed were Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas' political bureau, who was killed in Tehran in July 2024, and his deputy, Saleh al-Arouri, who was killed in Beirut in January of that year. This was followed by Yahya Sinwar, Hamas's leader in the Gaza Strip, who became Hamas' leader after Haniyeh's assassination. He was killed during a battle with IDF forces, who only identified him after his death in the Tel Sultan neighborhood of Rafah, on October 16, 2024.

Earlier, on October 10, 2023, just three days after the Hamas attack, Zakaria Abu Ammar and Jawad Abu Shamaleh were killed in an attack on a building in Khan Yunis. Abu Ammar served as head of national relations, while Abu Shamaleh was responsible for security issues.

On October 19, Jamila al-Shanti, a member of the Political Bureau in Gaza, and Osama al-Mazini, head of the Shura Council in Gaza, were also killed in targeted assassinations in Gaza City.

In March 2024, Marwan Issa, Hamas Chief of Staff, was killed in an airstrike on a tunnel in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza. Issa, who was suffering from cancer, served as a link between the military and political leadership.

In August 2024, Ruhi Mushtaha and Sameh al-Sarraj, members of the Political Bureau in Gaza, were killed after an Israeli bombing of a tunnel in the south of the city. Mushtaha was very close to Sinwar and held political and administrative positions in the movement, while al-Sarraj was responsible for security issues.

Previously, the Political Bureau consisted of only 17 members, but the number was increased to 24 in the last two internal elections. As of today, prominent members such as Khalil al-Hayya, Nizar Awdallah, Ghazi Hamad, Fathi Hamad and Suhail al-Hindi remain in the Political Bureau. They are in Qatar and Turkey, while other members of the Bureau remain in the Gaza Strip, such as Mahmoud al-Zahar, Ibrahim Sabra and Kamal Abu Aun.

Other members, such as Khaled Mashaal, Musa Abu Marzouk, Muhammad Nazal, Izzat al-Rishq, Zaher Jabarin, and Mahmoud Mardawi, are also abroad.

The Political Bureau is considered the supreme executive body of Hamas, which is authorized to make the final decisions, with the movement's important and fateful decisions being made by joint vote with the 50-member Shura Council.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mossad head David Barnea, and Shin Bet head Ronen Bar publicly pledged after Hamas' brutal massacre in the Gaza Strip to eliminate all Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip and abroad.

Senior security officials say that Israel is intensifying the hunt for members of Hamas's Political Bureau and emphasize that the hunt for members of Hamas's leadership, both in the political and military branches, in the Gaza Strip And abroad, it will continue until they are eliminated, and it is only a matter of time.

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Yoni Ben Menachem, A NEWSRAEL Contributor, is a Middle East senior analyst ,a journalist and the former CEO of the Israel Broadcasting Authority(IBA). He has decades of experience in written and video journalism. Ben Menachem’s path in the media world began as a producer for Japanese television in the Middle East. After that, he held many key positions in the media: The CEO of the Israel Broadcasting Authority, director of “Kol Israel” Radio, reporter on West Bank and Gaza Strip affairs, political reporter and commentator, commentator on Middle East affairs and editor-in-chief and presenter of the program “Middle East Magazine”.