A Hamas official has confirmed to the BBC that Izz ad-Din al-Haddad, commander of the group’s armed wing, was killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on Friday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a joint statement that Haddad had been “responsible for the murder, kidnapping and injury of thousands of Israeli civilians and IDF [Israel Defense Forces] soldiers”.
Israel described him as “one of the architects of the October 7 massacre”.
The strike is the latest launched by Israel on Gaza despite a ceasefire with Hamas.
Three eyewitnesses told the BBC that a residential building known as Al-Mu’taz was struck by three missiles launched simultaneously from two separate directions, before a fleeing car was hit.
The air strike, targeting the apartment block in the centre of Gaza City, sparked a large fire.
Rescue teams rushed to the scene but faced significant difficulties evacuating the wounded, witnesses said.
One eyewitness told the BBC that a body and several injured people had been removed from the building.
A second air strike, targeting a car seen leaving the scene, killed three people, according to eyewitnesses and a local source.
Sources said the vehicle may have been carrying Haddad after he had been seriously injured in the initial strike.
Eyewitnesses and a local source said armed members of Hamas dressed in civilian clothing evacuated a severely wounded person through a side entrance and placed him in a vehicle.
Witnesses said the car was hit around 1.5km (0.9 miles) from the apartment block.
A senior Israeli security official said preliminary information indicated that Haddad had been successfully targeted.
A ceasefire in Gaza came into effect on October 10, but Israel has conducted regular strikes across the Palestinian territory since then.
Hamas has repeatedly accused Israel of breaching the terms of the ceasefire and attacking civilians. The Israeli government maintains it has the license to target Hamas members.
It, in turn, accuses Hamas of refusing to disarm in breach of the ceasefire agreement.
Meanwhile, US-led peace efforts have stalled since the start of the Iran war, with the latter phases of the plan yet to come into effect
The US announced the start of the second phase of the plan in January, with governance of Gaza assumed by a transitional, technocratic administration alongside the demilitarisation and reconstruction of the territory.
However, disarmament talks remain deadlocked, while Hamas has since reactivated its police force and appears to be reasserting its authority.
Netanyahu and Katz said Haddad had “refused to implement the agreement led by US President Trump to disarm Hamas and demilitarise the Gaza Strip”.
They added: “We will continue to act forcefully and decisively against anyone who took part in the October 7 massacre.”
The two-year-long Gaza war was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed, and 251 others were taken hostage.
Israel responded by launching a military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, during which more than 72,744 people have been killed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Of these, 857 have been killed since the ceasefire began, it says.
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