High-ranking Hamas figure 'Abu Osama' killed in Gaza airstrike

As the Israeli military ramps up its effort to eliminate Hamas from the landscape once and for all, news has emerged that one of the terror group's founding members, Abd al-Fattah Dukhan -- known to many as “Abu Osama” perished in a Tuesday attack on the Gaza Strip, as the New York Post reports.

Details of the killing came from the KAN public broadcasting network in Israel, which referenced local reporting direct from Gaza.

According to sources, Dukhan met his end while in the Nuseirat neighborhood, and his death represents a significant blow to the organization.

Dukhan's history with Hamas reportedly dates back to 1987, when he attended the Muslim Brotherhood meeting in which the now-notorious group was founded by Palestinian Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

Going all the way back to its earliest days, the overriding objective of Hamas has been the destruction of the Jewish state of Israel and the development of an Islamic state in its stead.

Having retained control of the Gaza Strip going back to 2007, Hamas has long been officially designated by numerous Western countries as a terrorist organization for its reliance on rocket strikes, kidnappings, suicide bombings, and similar tactics to achieve its goals.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, two additional top leaders in the Hamas hierarchy have died as the result of airstrikes in Gaza this week.

Zachariah Abu Ma'amar and Jawad Abu Shamala lost their lives due to Israeli bombing on the same day of Dukhan's death, as the Israel National News reported.

The two held notable positions within the terror group, with Abu Ma'amar having a key organizational role in the planning of attacks on Israel and Abu Shamala tending primarily to economic affairs.

The deaths of these Hamas leaders – and those yet to come – should come as no surprise, given Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's recent declaration of resolve to ensure that every member of the terrorist organization was “a dead man,” as the BBC reported.

Speaking of the horrors of the Hamas attacks on Israeli civilian and military targets last weekend, Netanyahu said, “We saw the wild animals. We saw the barbarians we are facing. We saw a cruel enemy. An enemy worse than ISIS. We saw boys and girls bound, shot in the head. Men and women burned alive. Young women raped and slaughtered. Fighters decapitated....”

“How staggering the atrocity. How great the pain,” Netanyahu observed, noting that virtually every Israeli family knows someone who was murdered in the attacks.

Articulating the national determination that has taken root since the attacks, the prime minister added, “We are fighting with full force, on every front, we have gone onto the attack. Every member of Hamas is a dead man.”

“The people of Israel lives, and together we will win,” Netanyahu pledged, suggesting that the aforementioned Hamas losses are just the beginning of what he anticipates is yet to come.