The main targets of Israel's operation include interim leader Khalil al-Hayya, former leader Khaled Mashaal, and finance chief Zaher Jabari.
On Tuesday, Israel carried out a targeted airstrike in Doha, Qatar, in an attempt to kill several of Hamas's top leadership figures.
The main targets of this operation were Khalil al-Hayya, Khaled Mashaal, and Zaher Jabarin, whose fate remains unknown at the time of writing.
But who are these three people and what role do they have in Hamas?
Who is Khalil al-Hayya?
Khalil al-Hayya is the interim leader of Hamas, part of a leadership quintet that formed the top echelon of Hamas after the assassination of Yahya Sinwar in October 2024.
Born in Gaza, Hayya has been a member of Hamas for decades and has been a close ally of Sinwar. This close relationship led him to act as Sinwar's main representative in the Hamas politburo abroad, due to Sinwar's strained relations with Hamas leaders in exile.
This position enabled Hayya to establish strong ties with Hamas allies, such as Iran.
In 2022, he led a Hamas delegation to Damascus to mend relations with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, relations that had been severed a decade earlier when Hamas supported the Sunni uprising against Assad, a member of the minority Alawite sect.
Hayya has been very vocal in supporting the October 7 massacre, saying that the attack brought the Palestinian issue back into the international spotlight.
However, he has also claimed that the attack was intended as a limited operation to capture "a few soldiers" who would be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners.
"But the Zionist army unit completely collapsed," he said in comments published by the Hamas-affiliated Palestinian Information Center, referring to the IDF.
He rose further in the Hamas hierarchy in 2024, following the assassination of senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri by the IDF.
In December 2024, Hayya also took over the leadership of the Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas.
But Hayya's most public and important role has been as Hamas's chief negotiator, a key participant in ceasefire negotiations and hostage agreements.
During his years in Hamas, Hayya has survived several assassination attempts on him, some of which resulted in the killing of several of his relatives.
Who is Khaled Mashaal?
Khaled Mashaal has been a key Hamas figure for many decades and was the organization's leader until 2017, when he was replaced by Ismail Haniyeh.
Although no longer the official leader, Mashaal has maintained a high profile within Hamas and acted as interim leader on several occasions during the Israel-Hamas war.
Mashaal has never lived in the Palestinian territories since the founding of Hamas, except for a few brief visits. The Mashaal family fled the country after the Six-Day War.
When Hamas was founded in 1987, Mashaal led the group's activities in Kuwait, and then became a member of Hamas's politburo in the 1990s, quickly becoming its chairman.
After the assassination of Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin in 2004 by Israel, Mashaal was recognized as the organization's true leader.
During his leadership, Hamas gained great popularity and defeated Fatah in the 2006 elections, winning a majority in the Palestinian Parliament.
Mashaal was also the lead negotiator of the prisoner exchange deal that led to the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2012.
He has been the target of numerous assassination attempts, including a highly sensational attempt by Mossad to poison him in 1997, which caused a diplomatic crisis with Jordan.
After stepping down from leadership in 2017, Mashaal remained a highly influential figure in Hamas. After Sinwar's death, he was one of the leaders who joined the five leaders to lead the organization.
Who is Zaher Jabarin?
Zaher Jabarin is the longtime head of Hamas's Finance Office and responsible for managing the organization's financial network and investment portfolio.
In this role, he was the person who ensured the flow of money to keep the terrorist organization functional and finance its operations.
In the late 1980s, Jabarin co-founded Hamas' military forces in the West Bank, and was held responsible for numerous killings of IDF soldiers and policemen during the First Intifada.
He was arrested by Israeli forces in 1993 and sentenced to life imprisonment, but was released in 2011 as part of the deal for the release of Gilad Shalit.
After his release, he moved to Istanbul, where he took charge of the Financial Office and the Office of Martyrs, Wounded and Prisoners.
Jabarin was highly successful in managing Hamas' finances, increasing the organization's budget to hundreds of millions of dollars. This included various investments in real estate, stocks, private donations, and fundraising activities.
According to NBC News, in 2024 Hamas' investments were estimated at over half a billion dollars.
According to the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), he also helped increase the flow of funds from Iran to Hamas.
After Arouri's death in early 2024, Jabarin took over the leadership of Hamas operations in the West Bank.
This led to an increase in terrorist attacks in the West Bank and inside Israel, at a time when Hamas's capabilities in Gaza were limited by intense military pressure from the Israeli army (IDF).
In addition to his financial and military role, Zaher Jabarin, through the Office of Martyrs, Wounded and Prisoners, also played a role in negotiations with Israel on the hostage issue. He was part of the teams working on possible exchange agreements between Palestinian prisoners and Israeli hostages captured during recent conflicts.
