HAMAS leader Marwan Issa died in an Israeli air strike, White House official Jake Sullivan has said.
As deputy military commander, Mr Issa would be Hamas’s most senior leader to die since the war began on 7 October.
The Palestinian group, which controls Gaza, has not officially commented on reports of his death.
On Monday, US President Joe Biden held a high-stakes call with Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, about the war’s direction.
Israeli media sources have reported that Mr Issa was killed in an Israeli air strike that targeted a tunnel complex under the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza a week ago.
The deputy commander of Hamas’s military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, was considered one of Israel’s most-wanted men.
He had been jailed by Israel for five years during the First Palestinian Intifada and detained by the Palestinian Authority in 1997 until the start of the Second Intifada in 2000.
The Israeli military has killed a number of Hamas’s senior leaders since 7 October. Hamas political leader Saleh al-Arouri died in an explosion in Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh. Israel is widely considered responsible for that attack.
Mr Sullivan, the White House’s national security adviser, said other Hamas leaders were believed to be in hiding, “likely deep in the Hamas tunnel network” in Gaza.
