JERUSALEM POST
by Khaled Abu Toameh
August 22, 2014

The killing of the senior Hamas commanders – Raed Atar, Muhammad Abu Shamaleh and Muhammad Barhoum – and the attack on Deif’s hideout have shattered the self-confidence of the movement’s leaders

The assassination of three of Hamas’s most important military commanders in an Israeli air strike is the worst and most painful blow dealt to the movement’s armed wing, Izzadin Kassam, in recent years. The last time Izzadin Kassam suffered a major blow was when Israel killed its general commander, Ahmed Jabari, in November 2012.

The killing of the three Hamas commanders in a pre-dawn strike on a house in Rafah came less than 48 hours after the IAF targeted a house in Gaza City where Muhammad Deif, Izzadin Kassam’s “chief of staff,” was believed to be staying together with his wife and children. By Thursday night it was still not clear whether Deif had been killed.

But what is already clear is that the killing of the senior Hamas commanders – Raed Atar, Muhammad Abu Shamaleh and Muhammad Barhoum – and the attack on Deif’s hideout have shattered the self-confidence of the movement’s leaders. Deif and the three slain commanders are supposed to be among the most protected Hamas military figures in the Gaza Strip. They are rarely seen in public and spend most of their time moving from one hiding place to another.

These are not political leaders or spokesmen who do not hesitate to move around freely in the Gaza Strip and give interviews to local and foreign journalists. Only a small number of people know where the Hamas military commanders hang out. The targeting of the Hamas commanders represents a serious intelligence blunder for the movement’s armed wing. It shows that Israel has either managed to infiltrate the group or that its has informants who are very close to Hamas’s top military brass…..

http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/ANALYSIS-Israels-killing-of-senior-commanders-is-a-moral-and-military-blow-for-Hamas-371928