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IDF Spokesperson/TPS-IL on 24 March, 2025
Israel Confirms Killing Hamas’ Gaza Prime Minister
Jerusalem, 24 March, 2025 (TPS-IL) -- The Israel Defense Forces confirmed on Monday the death of Hamas’s Gaza Prime Minister, Ismail Barhoum in a Khan Yunis targeted assassination the previous day.
Barhoum, a member of Hamas’s politburo, held the terror group’s Institutions and Finance portfolio. He was promoted to Prime Minister when Essam al-Dalist was killed in a March 18 airstrike.
“Barhoum was a central figure in the organization’s political bureau and in making decisions that directly influenced Hamas’s terrorist activity against IDF forces in the Gaza Strip,” the IDF said. “He was in charge of managing the terrorist organization’s finances in the Gaza Strip, including routing funds for Hamas’ military wing to plan and execute terrorist plots against the State of Israel. These funds financed the organization’s continued survival in the Gaza Strip and were used for terrorist activity and the purchase of weapons, which posed a threat to the citizens of the State of Israel.”
The IDF said Barhoum was killed while working out of the Nasser Hospital.
“This is another example of how the Hamas terrorist organization systematically violates international law and takes over civilian infrastructure in a way that prevents the possibility of rehabilitation for the public in Gaza, while cruelly exploiting the population as human shields for its operations,” the military said.
Eighty-five percent of Gaza’s hospitals have been used by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad for terror according to the Israel Defense Forces.
As reported by The Press Service of Israel in 2023, Hamas made extensive use of the Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest medical center. Hamas launched rockets from its compound, hid hostages in the bowels of the building, tortured collaborators, and dug tunnel shafts.
Other Palestinians told Israeli interrogators Hamas deeply embedded itself in the Palestinian Red Crescent Society to use hospitals and clinics as a base for attacks.
At least 1,180 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 59 remaining hostages, 36 are believed to be dead.
