JERUSALEM, May 15 (Reuters) – Israel said on Friday that it had targeted Gaza Izz al-Din al-Haddad, the leader of the armed wing of Hamas, seen as one of the architects of the October 7, 2023 attacks on the Hebrew state.
Two strikes on an apartment in the Rimal district of Gaza City and on a vehicle in a nearby street killed at least seven people and wounded around fifty others, according to medical sources in Gaza, without immediate information on whether the Hamas commander was among the casualties.
Neither the Israeli authorities nor Hamas have commented on the fate of Izz al-Din al-Haddad, who took over the leadership of the Palestinian group’s armed branch in the Palestinian enclave following the assassination of Mohammed Sinouar by Israel in May 2025.
Izz al-Din al-Haddad, head of the al Qassam brigades, is the highest-ranking commander targeted by Israel since the ceasefire agreement brokered by the United States last October.
In a joint statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz described Izz al-Din al-Haddad as “responsible for the killings, kidnappings, and infliction of harm on thousands of Israeli civilians and soldiers.”
(Reporting by Rami Ayyub in Jerusalem and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo; French editing by Zhifan Liu, edited by Jean-Stephane Brosse)
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