Hamas military chief killed in Gaza

May 17, 2026

National
Hamas military chief killed in Gaza

Tel Aviv [Israel], May 17: The Israeli military and the domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet have confirmed the death of Hamas's military chief in the Gaza Strip.
Izz ad-Din Al Haddad was killed in an Israeli airstrike the previous day, they said on Saturday. Al Haddad was described in a statement as one of the architects of the attack on October 7, 2023, when Hamas and others killed about 1,200 people in Israel and abducted more than 250 to the Gaza Strip.
Authorization to kill Al Haddad had apparently been granted around one and a half weeks earlier, and he had been under constant surveillance since then.
Hamas also confirmed Al Haddad's death in a statement from the organization's military brigade.
The Palestinian Mujahideen Movement and its military wing, the Mujahideen Brigades, said Al Haddad, the head of the Qassam Brigades, which is the armed wing of Hamas, was killed by an Israeli strike in the western part of Gaza City on Friday.
His family had previously reported that Al Haddad, his wife and one of his daughters were killed in the Israeli strike in Gaza City on Friday. Al Haddad was buried in Gaza in the afternoon.
People carried portraits of the Hamas commander ahead of the funeral procession, his body draped in a Hamas flag.
Source: Qatar Tribune