Several months after a US-mediated ceasefire entered into effect, Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip Izz ad-Din al-Haddad made a series of critical mistakes that enabled Israel to track and ultimately kill him, security sources told Walla on Saturday.
The reported errors came as peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov was working to advance efforts to demilitarize Gaza, transfer control of the Strip from Hamas to a third party, and secure the withdrawal of IDF forces from Palestinian-controlled areas.
According to reliable sources in the defense establishment, Haddad initially hid and moved through a highly complex tunnel network. He insisted that only a very small circle know his movements and locations, and usually traveled from place to place through the underground system.
The sources said Haddad was also the Hamas figure who pushed at the last minute to enter the ceasefire, after realizing that IDF ground forces, encouraged by Defense Minister Israel Katz, had surrounded the core of Gaza City, where he was hiding.
Haddad understood that if Hamas’s leadership rejected the ceasefire, his days would likely be numbered, and that the military systems Hamas had built since ousting Fatah from Gaza could begin to collapse, the sources said.
Defense officials claimed Haddad had effectively pleaded for the ceasefire. In exceptional cases, shortly before the fighting stopped, he would emerge from the underground network into buildings and look outside, in direct violation of the security rules he had set for himself.
Haddad cracked under pressure, Israel spotted him
That type of error, according to the sources, helped the Israeli intelligence community locate and eliminate much of Hamas’s senior leadership. Haddad, too, appeared to break under pressure and violate his own operational discipline.
Haddad, who often received policy and operational instructions for Gaza from Khalil al-Hayya, was tempted to go above ground and move through the streets of Gaza when Israel’s attention was focused on Iran and Lebanon.
Like a senior fugitive seeking to prove control, Haddad reportedly showed his face in a limited and calculated way to maintain authority on the street and signal that he did not fear Israeli intelligence or Israel Air Force missiles.
Some defense officials, however, assessed that his primary motivation was longing for his family, including his wife and children, after a prolonged period underground. Haddad had also been responsible for Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers held captive.
Despite this, he continued to live as one of Israel’s most wanted men, distancing from his inner circle anyone suspected of loyalty problems.
Military Intelligence officials identified the windows of time in which Haddad “made mistakes,†traced his new movement patterns, and presented senior defense officials with opportunities in which there was a high probability of targeting him.
In isolation, Haddad expanded Hamas influence, funding, range of attacks
At the same time, Haddad had built a well-oiled financial mechanism in Gaza. Defense officials said he was accumulating power, money, and influence as part of a broader plan to rebuild Hamas’s military wing, tighten links between Gaza and the West Bank, expand the range of attacks, restore Hamas’s influence on the Palestinian street, and block any diplomatic move that could weaken the group.
In the end, Haddad was killed above ground in a hideout apartment in Gaza City’s Rimal neighborhood, surrounded, among others, by members of his family.
When people attempted to flee the building in vehicles, the IDF struck again to prevent escape by Haddad’s associates or any survival attempt by Haddad himself.
