JERUSALEM, May 15 (Reuters) – Israel said it had targeted the head of Hamas’ armed wing with a strike in Gaza on Friday, describing him as an architect of the October 7, 2023, attacks that precipitated Israel’s two-year assault on the Palestinian territory.
Hamas did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the fate of Izz al-Din al-Haddad, who became the militant group’s military chief in the Gaza Strip after Israel’s killing of commander Mohammad Sinwar in May 2025.
Haddad is the most senior Hamas official targeted with a strike by Israel since an October U.S.-backed deal that was meant to halt fighting in Gaza. The attack comes as Hamas has been tightening its grip in a sliver of territory on Gaza’s coast under its control.
In a joint statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz said Haddad “was responsible for the murder, abduction, and harm inflicted on thousands of Israeli civilians (and) soldiers.”
The two leaders did not say whether they believed Haddad had been killed.
Medics and witnesses in Gaza said an air strike had targeted an apartment in the Gaza City area of Rimal, killing at least one person and wounding several others. The identity of the person killed was not immediately clear.
A second Israeli air strike soon after targeted a vehicle on a nearby street, the medics and witnesses said. There were no immediate reports of casualties from the second strike.
(Reporting by Rami Ayyub in Jerusalem and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo)
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