Ahmed Jabari, the Hamas military chief, is the latest of a number of Hamas leaders killed by Israel in airstrikes over the past decade.

— July 2002: An Israeli warplane drops a bomb on the home of Salah Shehadeh, the head of the Hamas military wing, killing him and 14 others, including women and children.

— March 2004: An Israeli missile strike kills Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the Hamas spiritual leader, near a Gaza City mosque. Yassin, paralyzed in a childhood accident, was among the founders of Hamas founders in 1987, a few days after the outbreak of the first Palestinian uprising. Hamas is the Palestinian offshoot of the region-wide Muslim Brotherhood.

— April 2004: Israel kills Gaza's Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi in a missile strike on his car. Two of Rantisi's bodyguards are also killed.

— January 2009: An Israeli warplane drops a bomb on the home of Nizar Rayyan, a senior Hamas figure, killing him and 18 others. The attack comes several days after Israel launches a three-week military offensive, against Hamas in Gaza.

— January 2009, an Israeli airstrike during the offensive kills Said Siam, the interior minister in Gaza's Hamas government. A missile hits the home of Siam's brother and also kills two other senior Hamas members.