The Israeli military said Saturday that it had killed the head of Hamas' military wing in an airstrike on Gaza the previous day, the highest-ranking Hamas official killed by Israel since an October U.S.-backed ceasefire deal that was supposed to halt the fighting.
According to Reuters, a senior Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Izz al-Din al-Haddad, born in 1970, was killed in the attack. Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Hazem Qassem, later said in a video statement posted on Facebook that Haddad had been killed, without giving further details.
A joint funeral was held Saturday at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Mosque in central Gaza for Hadad, his wife and their 19-year-old daughter. It was not immediately clear how they died.
Israel carried out at least two strikes on Gaza on Friday, killing seven Palestinians, including three women and a child, according to local medics. A Palestinian source said Haddad was killed in an Israeli strike on a residential building.
The Israeli military said Haddad was killed in what it said was a precision strike on Gaza City. Israel has carried out several attacks on Gaza since the ceasefire began, according to Reuters.
Casualties rise despite ceasefire
About 850 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since the October ceasefire, according to figures that do not distinguish between combatants and civilians. Militants have killed four Israeli soldiers in the same period. Hamas does not release figures on casualties among its fighters.
In a joint statement with the defense minister on Friday, announcing that the military had targeted Hadad, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hadad was one of the architects of the October 7, 2023, attack that launched Israel's current offensive on Gaza.
Hadad, who became the group’s military chief in Gaza after Israel killed Mohammed Sinwar in May 2025, “was responsible for the killings, kidnappings and harming of thousands of Israeli civilians and soldiers,” Netanyahu and the defense minister said.
Hadad, known by the nickname "The Ghost," survived multiple Israeli assassination attempts, according to Hamas sources. The Israeli military says he was one of Hamas's longest-serving commanders, rising through the ranks from the group's early days in the 1980s to several senior positions.
Israel and Hamas remain deadlocked in indirect talks on progress on US President Donald Trump's plan for post-war Gaza, which is supposed to end more than two years of fighting.
Israel has stepped up attacks on Gaza in the weeks since it suspended a joint bombing campaign against Iran with the US, refocusing its fire on the devastated Palestinian territory, where the Israeli military says Hamas fighters are consolidating control.
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