GAZA CITY — An Israeli airstrike killed the commander of Hamas’ military wing in Gaza City on Friday, eliminating one of the last senior figures who helped plan and execute the October 7, 2023 attacks that triggered the war, the Israeli military confirmed Saturday. Hamas acknowledged the death hours later.
Izz al-Din al-Haddad was struck in Gaza City in an operation the Israeli army described as a significant blow to the organization’s remaining command structure. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a joint statement that al-Haddad was “one of the architects” of the October 7 assault, which killed approximately 1,200 people in southern Israel and resulted in more than 250 people being taken hostage into Gaza.
Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem confirmed the killing on social media. Al-Haddad’s family separately confirmed his death to the Associated Press. Six other people died in the same strike, among them his wife and daughter. His two sons had been killed earlier in the war. His body was carried through Gaza City wrapped in Hamas and Palestinian flags at a funeral Saturday.
Al-Haddad had assumed command of Hamas’ military wing after his predecessor, Mohammed Sinwar, was killed. Israel’s army said he had surrounded himself with Israeli hostages during the war, using them as protection against precisely the kind of strike that ultimately killed him.
Israel’s army chief of staff called the operation significant and said Israel would continue pursuing those it held responsible for the October 7 attacks. Netanyahu and Katz issued a direct warning to anyone who participated in the assault. “Sooner or later, Israel will reach you,” their statement read.
Who al-Haddad Was
Izz al-Din al-Haddad was among Hamas’ founding generation. He joined the organization when it was established in the 1980s and served in the Qassam Brigades’ Majd section, which was tasked with identifying and targeting Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel. Over the following decades he rose through the organization’s military hierarchy to become a member of Hamas’ Military Council, the senior body of commanders that coordinated the planning of the October 7 attacks.
His killing removed one of the last surviving members of that council who had directed the assault. Israel has spent nearly two years hunting the architects of October 7 across Gaza, with al-Haddad among the final high-value targets from the attack’s planning core.
Two Israeli strikes hit Gaza City on Friday evening. One targeted a residential building. A second targeted a vehicle. Seven people were killed and dozens more wounded across both strikes, according to health officials at Saraya Field Hospital and Shifa Hospital. Palestinian residents reported additional strikes that followed in the same area. The Israeli military did not immediately confirm what those subsequent strikes were targeting.
A Ceasefire That Keeps Bleeding
Al-Haddad’s killing came inside a ceasefire that has not stopped the killing. The agreement between Israel and Hamas, reached in October, remains technically in place but has been punctuated by near-daily Israeli fire across Gaza. More than 850 people have been killed in the territory since the ceasefire took effect, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government but staffed by medical professionals whose detailed casualty records are broadly accepted as credible by the international community.
The ceasefire’s top diplomatic overseer has said the agreement has stalled because of the unresolved dispute over Hamas’ disarmament. Both sides have accused the other of violations. Israel has continued targeting Hamas commanders inside Gaza throughout the ceasefire period, including the son of Hamas lead negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, killed in an earlier strike.
The Health Ministry said Israel’s military campaign since October 2023 has killed more than 72,700 people in Gaza.
West Bank Violence Continues
Beyond Gaza, violence spread through the occupied West Bank on Saturday. Israeli troops shot and killed Hassan Fayyad, 34, in the Jenin refugee camp. The Palestinian Red Crescent said he was struck by a bullet in the thigh. Israel’s military said troops fired warning shots at a person attempting to infiltrate the camp, then fired when he did not comply, and subsequently provided medical assistance as he was transferred to a hospital.
On Thursday, Israeli troops killed a 15-year-old boy in Eastern Lubban, a town in the Nablus area, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Israel’s military said soldiers identified three people throwing rocks at Israeli vehicles and endangering lives, and opened fire.
On Friday, settlers set fire to a mosque and multiple vehicles in the village of Jibiya, northwest of Ramallah, Palestinian religious authorities confirmed. Security camera footage showed people pouring flammable material on the mosque and at least two vehicles. Hebrew-language graffiti was spray-painted on the mosque’s exterior walls, said Sabir Shalash, head of Jibiya’s municipal council.
The Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs condemned the attack as a “cowardly terrorist act” and criticized what it called international inaction on rising settler violence against Muslim and Christian sites across the occupied West Bank. The Israeli military and police said they were deployed to the area but found no suspects and were investigating. The army said it “strongly condemns” attacks on religious institutions.
Decapitation Without Resolution
The killing of al-Haddad fits into a pattern Israel has pursued relentlessly since October 7: systematically eliminating the men who planned, approved, and led the attack. Yahya Sinwar, the political leader who is widely regarded as the attack’s chief architect, was killed in October 2024. Mohammed Sinwar, his brother and military wing predecessor to al-Haddad, was killed subsequently. Al-Haddad was among the last of that founding circle.
From Israel’s stated perspective, the campaign has accomplished what it set out to do in one specific dimension. The men who organized October 7 are nearly all dead. The military logic is real. Eliminating experienced commanders degrades organizational capacity, disrupts planning cycles, and sends a message to every surviving member of Hamas that Israel’s reach is long and its patience for accountability is indefinite.
What the campaign has not done is resolve the fundamental questions that will determine Gaza’s future. The ceasefire remains deadlocked over Hamas’ disarmament, a demand Hamas has shown no willingness to accept and that Israel has made a prerequisite for any durable agreement. More than 850 people have been killed since the ceasefire took effect — a figure that makes the word ceasefire increasingly difficult to defend as a description of what is happening in Gaza.
The 72,700 deaths the Health Ministry attributes to Israel’s offensive since October 2023 represent a humanitarian toll that has reshaped international opinion on the war in ways that targeted military strikes, however operationally sound, do not address. Israel’s argument is that it is fighting a legitimate war against a terrorist organization that started it. The rest of the world is increasingly focused on what comes after, and on whether the destruction of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure can be justified by the military objectives that guide each individual strike.
Al-Haddad is dead. The ceasefire is stalling. The hostages are not all home. Gaza is in ruins. The war that October 7 started is not over, and the killing of its last surviving architects has not produced the conditions under which it can end.
AP/NBC
