Israel says it has killed Izz ad-Din al-Haddad, the commander of Hamas's military wing, in an airstrike on Gaza City on Friday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yisrael Katz announced the strike in a joint statement, describing al-Haddad as "one of the architects of the October 7 massacre" and saying he had been "responsible for the murder, kidnapping and injury of thousands of Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers." Hamas has neither confirmed nor denied that al-Haddad was killed, and a senior Israeli security official said preliminary information indicated he had been successfully targeted.
Eyewitnesses described two successive strikes in the Rimal neighbourhood of central Gaza City. The first hit Al-Mu'taz, a residential apartment block, when three missiles were launched simultaneously from two separate directions, sparking a large fire and causing significant casualties. Gaza's Civil Defence spokesman said hundreds of people were living in the building and that no warning was given before the strike, with families among the dead and wounded. Shortly afterwards, a second strike hit a car approximately 1.5 kilometres away. Witnesses reported seeing armed Hamas members in civilian clothing carry a severely wounded person from the building through a side entrance and place him in a vehicle before it was struck. Seven people were killed across both strikes and dozens wounded, according to health officials at two Gaza hospitals.
Al-Haddad assumed command of Hamas's Qassam Brigades in Gaza following the killing of Mohammed Sinwar by Israel in May 2025, making him the most senior Hamas figure targeted since a US-brokered ceasefire came into effect in October 2025. Netanyahu and Katz accused al-Haddad of refusing to implement what they described as a US-backed agreement to disarm Hamas and demilitarise Gaza, a plan whose later phases have stalled, in part since the outbreak of the Iran war.
The strike underscores the precarious state of the Gaza ceasefire, under which more than 857 people have been killed since October, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry — a body staffed by medical professionals whose casualty records are generally regarded as reliable by the international community. Israel maintains it has the right to target Hamas members under the agreement's terms, while Hamas accuses Israel of repeatedly breaching the ceasefire by attacking civilians. The two-year conflict was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which around 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage. Israel's subsequent military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 72,700 people in total, according to the health ministry.