{"id":29455,"date":"2026-05-16T16:03:29","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T16:03:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/29455\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T16:03:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T16:03:29","slug":"hamas-military-wing-leader-killed-in-israeli-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/29455\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamas military wing leader killed in Israeli strike"},"content":{"rendered":"

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) \u2014 An Israeli airstrike in Gaza<\/a> killed the leader of Hamas\u2019 military wing who was one of the last surviving architects of the attacks that triggered the war<\/a> in late 2023, the Israeli military said Saturday. Hamas confirmed the death.<\/p>\n

Izz al-Din al-Haddad was killed on Friday, Israel\u2019s army said, describing him as one of the senior Hamas military commanders who directed the planning and execution of the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed around 1,200 people in southern Israel and saw more than 250 taken hostage.<\/p>\n

A Hamas spokesperson, Hazem Qassem, confirmed the killing on social media.<\/p>\n

The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas remains fragile, and the top diplomat overseeing it says it has stalled<\/a> because of the deadlock over disarming Hamas. Both sides have traded accusations of violations. Gaza has seen near-daily Israeli fire with more than 850 people killed in the Palestinian territory since the ceasefire went into effect in October, according to Gaza\u2019s Health Ministry.<\/p>\n

The ministry is part of Gaza\u2019s Hamas-run government, but staffed by medical professionals who maintain and publish detailed records viewed as generally reliable by the international community. The ministry overall says Israel\u2019s retaliatory strikes in the war have devastated the Palestinian enclave and killed more than 72,700 people.<\/p>\n

Israel said that al-Haddad had assumed the role of Hamas commander after his predecessor, Mohammed Sinwar, was killed. The army said that al-Haddad had surrounded himself with Israeli hostages during the war as a shield against an attack.<\/p>\n

Al-Haddad\u2019s family confirmed his death in Friday\u2019s strike to The Associated Press. Six other people, including his wife and daughter, were also killed. His two sons were killed earlier in the war.<\/p>\n

His body was wrapped in Hamas and Palestinian flags as it was carried by mourners at Saturday\u2019s funeral in Gaza City.<\/p>\n

Al-Haddad joined Hamas when it was established in the 1980s, and was a member of the Qassam Brigades\u2019 Majd section tasked to go after collaborators with Israel. He was also a member of Hamas\u2019 Military Council, the highest group of commanders that played a key role in the attacks that sparked the war.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s army chief of staff called his killing a significant operation, and said that Israel would continue pursuing its enemies to hold them accountable.<\/p>\n

Palestinian man killed in West Bank<\/p>\n

Violence flared Saturday in the occupied West Bank<\/a>, where Israeli troops shot and killed a 34-year-old Palestinian in the Jenin refugee camp, according to the Palestinian Health ministry.<\/p>\n

Hassan Fayyad was fatally shot in a thigh, the Palestinian Red Crescent said. Israel\u2019s military said that troops first fired warning shots at a person trying to infiltrate the camp and shot him when he didn\u2019t comply. They provided him with medical treatment as he was transferred to a hospital, it said.<\/p>\n

Israeli troops on Thursday shot and killed a 15-year-old boy in Eastern Lubban town in Nablus, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Israel\u2019s military said that it identified three people hurling rocks toward Israeli vehicles and \u201cendangering lives,\u201d and troops fired at them, killing one.<\/p>\n

On Friday, settlers set fire to a mosque and vehicles in the village of Jibiya, northwest of Ramallah, Palestinian religious authorities said. Security camera footage showed people pouring flammable material on the mosque and at least two vehicles, said Sabir Shalash, the head of Jibiya\u2019s municipal council. Spray-painted Hebrew slogans were found on the mosque\u2019s walls, he said.<\/p>\n

The Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs described the attack as \u201ca cowardly terrorist act\u201d and criticized the international community\u2019s inaction over mounting Jewish settler attacks against Muslim and Christian sites in the occupied Palestinian territories.<\/p>\n

The Israeli military and police said that they were deployed to the area and didn\u2019t locate any suspects, but were investigating. The army said that it \u201cstrongly condemns\u201d attacks on religious institutions.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Samy Magdy reported from Cairo.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Find more of AP\u2019s coverage at https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/israel-hamas-war<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) \u2014 An Israeli airstrike in Gaza killed the leader of Hamas\u2019 military wing who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2660,2477,61,50,4262,17945,8,37,102,275,98,17944,9,4461,969,7,226,106],"class_list":{"0":"post-29455","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-2024-2025-mideast-wars","9":"tag-2024-2026-mideast-wars","10":"tag-ap-top-news","11":"tag-general-news","12":"tag-hamas","13":"tag-hassan-fayyad","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-israel","16":"tag-israel-government","17":"tag-mideast-wars","18":"tag-military-and-defense","19":"tag-mohammed-sinwar","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-palestinian-territories-government","22":"tag-religion","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-war-and-unrest","25":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116585103515832242","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}