Israel said Saturday it had killed Hamas armed wing chief Ezzedine Al-Haddad in an airstrike in Gaza the previous day, describing him as a key architect of the October 7 attacks.
Since Hamas's October 7, 2023 cross-border assault, the Israeli military and intelligence services have waged a campaign targeting the group's senior political leaders and military commanders in Gaza and across the region.
The military said Friday it had carried out an airstrike in Gaza targeting Haddad, before confirming his death on Saturday.
"The army and the ISA announce that yesterday, in a precise strike in the area of the City of Gaza, the terrorist Ezzedine Al-Haddad was eliminated," the military said, referring to itself and the Shin Bet domestic security agency.
A Hamas official told AFP that Haddad had been killed in an Israeli strike on a residential building.
"Senior commander... Ezzedine Al-Haddad was assassinated in an Israeli strike targeting a residential apartment and a civilian vehicle in Gaza City yesterday," the official said.
Haddad was killed along with his wife and a daughter, according to another Hamas source.
AFP photographs showed mourners carrying Haddad's body, wrapped in a Hamas flag, on a stretcher from the ruins of a building.
It was later taken to a mosque where relatives and mourners offered prayers before carrying it through the streets for burial.
The military said Haddad was "one of the last senior commanders in Hamas's military wing who directed the planning and execution of the October 7th massacre".
Haddad was also involved in holding Israeli hostages during the war, it added.
"Haddad managed Hamas's hostage captivity system and surrounded himself with hostages in an attempt to prevent his elimination," it said.
- 'Immense loss' -
Hazem Qassem, a Hamas spokesman, said Haddad was one of the "greatest fighters" in Palestinian history.
"Haddad stands among the towering figures of the Palestinian revolution, having sacrificed greatly for the freedom of Jerusalem and for its prisoners," Qassem told AFP.
"This loss is immense, but the path forward continues until liberation."
Israel's military chief Lieutenant Colonel Eyal Zamir called the killing a "significant operational achievement".
"In every conversation I held with the hostages who returned, the name of the arch-terrorist Ezzedine Al-Haddad... came up again and again," Zamir said, in a separate statement.
"Today, we succeeded in eliminating him. The army will continue to pursue our enemies, strike them, and hold accountable everyone who took part in the October 7th massacre."
Over the course of the war, Israel has claimed responsibility for the assassinations of several Hamas leaders, including Yahya Sinwar, widely regarded as a mastermind of the October 7 attack.
It also killed Mohammed Deif, the longtime commander of Hamas's armed wing and another key architect of the attack.
Israeli strikes have also targeted Hamas operatives in Lebanon, as well as senior Hezbollah commanders allied with the group, including former Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
Later on Saturday, in a separate statement the military said its forces had killed three more Hamas fighters over the past two weeks, including two who took part in the October 2023 attacks.
- Violence continues in Gaza -
Born in 1970, Haddad assumed command of the armed wing in May last year following the killing of his immediate predecessor, also in an Israeli strike, according to a Hamas source.
He had previously survived six assassination attempts by Israel, the source told AFP.
He was also a founder of Hamas's security service and oversaw prisoner exchanges, including those conducted under the ceasefire reached in October last year.
Fighters from Hamas's armed wing led the October 7 attack, which according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures left 1,221 people dead on Israeli side.
Fighters also abducted 251 hostages to Gaza.
Israel's retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 72,700 people, according to the territory's health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority.
The figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.
Despite an October ceasefire, Gaza remains gripped by daily violence as Israeli strikes continue, with both the military and Hamas accusing one another of violating the truce.
At least 856 Palestinians have been killed since the truce began, according to the territory's health ministry.
Over the same period, the Israeli military said five soldiers have been killed in Gaza.
