Israeli military aircraft attacked an apartment building in Gaza City’s Rimal neighborhood on Friday, targeting Hamas’s military chief, Izz al Din al Haddad. The strike, if successful, would be the third Hamas leader in Gaza to have been killed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) since the Islamist group and its allies initiated the war with Israel on October 7, 2023.
“Under the instructions of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz, the IDF has just carried out a strike in Gaza targeting arch-terrorist Izz al-Din al-Haddad — the leader of the military wing of the Hamas terrorist organization and one of the architects of the October 7 massacre,” a joint statement by Netanyahu and Katz said.
An IDF official did not confirm if the strike killed Haddad, saying in a statement sent to FDD’s Long War Journal that “a battle damage assessment confirmation is still pending.” However, Ynet reported that Israeli officials expressed some optimism, noting that there were “initial indications” that the attack on the site killed him.
Gaza paramedics stated that three people had been killed in the strike and more than a dozen wounded, according to a report by The Times of Israel.
A statement by an Israeli military official sent to FDD’s Long War Journal noted that Haddad was “appointed to his position following the elimination of Mohammed Sinwar [Hamas’s former leader in Gaza],” and that he had violated the ceasefire by “working to restore the capabilities of the terrorist organization’s military wing.” The official stated that Haddad is the “last remaining senior Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip who was among the leaders of the October 7th massacre.”
According to a Wall Street Journal report, Haddad rose through the ranks of Hamas, commanding groups of fighters before reaching his position as chief of the Islamist group’s military apparatus in Gaza. He was once a member of Al Majd, a Hamas internal security that identified Palestinians who allegedly collaborated with Israel. Yahya Sinwar also led the same force.
The WSJ reported that a day before the Hamas-led October 7 attack on southern Israel, Haddad met with the group’s commanders and “handed them a document with instructions for the coming operation, including the mass abduction of Israeli soldiers.” Following the killing of Yahya Sinwar, Haddad took over Hamas’s military forces in northern Gaza while Muhammad Sinwar commanded its fighters in the south.
Hamas has not confirmed if Haddad was targeted or killed in the IDF’s strike.
Joe Truzman is an editor and senior research analyst at FDD's Long War Journal focused primarily on Palestinian armed groups and non-state actors in the Middle East.
Tags: Gaza, Hamas, IDF, Israel, Israel Hamas, Izz al Din al Haddad
