Hamas official says military chief has died after Israel says it targeted him

Izz al-Din al-Haddad is most senior Hamas figure killed by Israel since October ceasefire

A senior Hamas official toldReuterson Saturday that the chief of the group's military wing had died. a day after Israel said that it had carried out airstrikes targeting him.

Earlier, witnesses in Gaza City said that mosques had announced Izz al-Din al-Haddad's "martyrdom". He is the most senior Hamas official killed by Israel since an October United States-backedceasefire dealthat was meant to halt fighting in Gaza.

Hamas has not publicly confirmed Haddad's death.

Read:Israeli minister announces illegal settlement plans in Lebanon, displacements in Gaza, West Bank

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a joint statement with his defence minister on Friday that Haddad had been targeted. though they did not say if he had been killed.

Netanyahu. Defence Minister Israel Katz said Haddad was an architect of the October 7, 2023 attacks launched byHamasthat precipitatedIsrael's ongoing assaulton Gaza.

Haddad, who became the group's military chief in Gaza after Israel's killing of Mohammad Sinwar in May 2025, "was responsible for the murder, abduction,. harm inflicted on thousands of Israeli civilians (and) soldiers," they said.

Read More:New Israeli law sets military tribunal for Hamas members involved in Oct 7 attack

Israel. Hamas remaindeadlocked in indirect talksto advance US President Donald Trump'spost-war plan for Gazathat is meant to end more than two years of fighting.

Medicsin Gazaon Friday said that at least seven people, including three women. a child, were killed and at least 50 were injured in air strikes targeting an apartment and a vehicle. It is not clear if Haddad was one of the dead.

Israelhas escalated its attacksin Gaza in the ​weeks since halting its joint bombing with the US in Iran. redirecting its fire back on the ruined Palestinian territory, where the military says that Hamas fighters are tightening their grip.

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