Israel kills Hamas military leader Haddad in air strike
An Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip killed the chief of Hamas’s military wing, the most senior official of the Palestinian militant group killed by Israel since October’s US-backed ceasefire agreement aimed at halting fighting.
Al-Qassam Brigades commander Izz al-Din al-Haddad was killed in a decisive attack on Gaza City on Friday, the Israeli army said on Saturday.
Israel has launched repeated attacks on the region since the ceasefire began.
Hamas later confirmed in a statement that Haddad, who was born in 1970, was killed along with his wife and daughter.
He described him as a central figure directing combat operations and accused Israel of trying to achieve politically through killings what it had failed to achieve militarily.
A joint funeral ceremony was held for Haddad, his wife and their 19-year-old daughter at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Mosque in Gaza on Saturday.
Israel launched at least two attacks in the Gaza Strip on Friday, killing seven Palestinians, including three women and one child, according to local health officials.
A Palestinian source said that Haddad was killed in an Israeli attack on an apartment building.
About 850 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since the October ceasefire, according to figures that do not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
During the same period, four Israeli soldiers were killed by militants.
Hamas does not release figures on casualties among its fighters.
In a joint statement with his defense minister on Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the army targeted Haddad and said that Haddad was the architect of the October 7, 2023 attacks that accelerated Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip.
They said Haddad, who became the group’s military chief after Israel killed Mohammed Sinwar in May 2025, was “responsible for murder, kidnapping and harm inflicted on thousands of Israeli civilians (and) soldiers.”
According to Hamas sources, Haddad, nicknamed “The Ghost”, survived many Israeli assassination attempts.
The Israeli military says he is one of Hamas’ longest-serving commanders and has risen through the ranks to hold various senior positions since the group’s initial founding in the 1980s.
Israel and Hamas are deadlocked in indirect talks to advance US President Donald Trump’s post-war plan for the Gaza Strip aimed at ending more than two years of conflict.
Israel has stepped up its attacks in the region in the weeks after halting its joint US bombardment of Iran, redirecting its fire into devastated Palestinian territory where the military says Hamas fighters have tightened their control.
