Israel, Hamas Report Death of Gaza Military Chief in Israeli Targeted Strike

Israel and Hamas are confirming Saturday the death of Izz al-Din al-Haddad, military chief of the terrorist group and one of the last surviving architects of the October 7, 2023, massacre that claimed some 1,200 Israeli lives and set off a two-year war in Gaza. “In every conversation I held with the hostages who returned, the name of the arch-terrorist Izz al-Din al-Haddad, one of the chief perpetrators of the October 7 massacre and the head of Hamas’ military wing, came up again and again,” Israel’s military chief of staff, Lieutenant-General Eyal Zami, said in a statement quoted by the Jerusalem Post.“Today, we succeeded in eliminating him.”Hours earlier, Reuters news agency quoted an unnamed senior Hamas official confirming the death. The agency said a joint funeral was held on Saturday at Al Aqsa Martyrs mosque in central Gaza for Haddad, his wife and his 19-year-old daughter.Israel announced on Friday that Haddad had been targeted in a strike, but did not confirm his death at that time.Haddad assumed the role of military chief in Gaza following the death of Mohammed Sinwar, who died in an underground tunnel as the result of an Israeli strike in May 2025. The Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet intelligence service had named Haddad as one of the last remaining senior military commanders who directly planned, executed, and directed the October 7 attacks. Haddad “worked to rebuild the capabilities of the terrorist organization’s military wing and to plan numerous terror attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops,” according to an IDF statement quoted by the Times of Israel.“Throughout the war, Haddad was involved in the holding of many Israeli hostages in Hamas captivity. Haddad managed Hamas’s hostage captivity system and surrounded himself with hostages in an attempt to prevent his elimination,” the statement said.Despite a ceasefire brokered by the United States in October 2025, Israel has continued targeted strikes in the coastal enclave in response to what it says are violations by Hamas forces and the group’s failure to comply with a promise under the ceasefire agreement to disarm.Officials within Gaza’s Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health tell al Jazeera that 120 Palestinians, including eight women and 13 children, have been killed in Israeli attacks since America and Israel halted their airstrikes on Iran on April 8.

Israel, Hamas Report Death of Gaza Military Chief in Israeli Targeted Strike

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