Gaza, Palestine – The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) confirmed on Saturday the death of its prominent military wing commander, Izz al-Din al-Haddad, one day after Israeli authorities announced he had been targeted in a concentrated airstrike in the Gaza Strip.
Reuters reported that a senior Hamas official officially confirmed al-Haddad’s death, coinciding with announcements from several mosques in northern Gaza via loudspeakers declaring the young military commander dead after a long period of being pursued and targeted.
For its part, the Israeli army officially announced, in a joint statement with the General Security Service (Shin Bet), its success in the assassination of Haddad. The Israeli army spokesman told the Arab media that Haddad was one of the last senior leaders of the military wing of Hamas who directly supervised the planning and execution of the October 7 attacks, in addition to his pivotal role in managing the ongoing combat operations against the Israeli army forces that had penetrated the Gaza Strip.
Details of the deadly air raid
In a related context, an Eram News correspondent quoted sources close to the Haddad family confirming his death following the violent Israeli raids that targeted the residential area in Gaza City. Muslim Haddad, a relative of the deceased, said that Commander Izz al-Din, his wife, and his daughter were all killed as a result of a direct Israeli bombing that targeted a residential building in which they were located, which led to its complete destruction on top of its residents.
This operation comes in the context of an old and ongoing Israeli intelligence and security effort to assassinate Haddad, as the Israeli security services have tried to target and eliminate him in at least four previous attempts. In one of those attempts, Tel Aviv previously announced its success in eliminating him before it became clear to them later through field intelligence reports that he was still alive and continuing his military activity.
The political and security dimensions of the assassination
Experts and analysts on Israeli affairs believe that this assassination goes beyond the direct security dimension, as it carries within it complex internal political dimensions related to the current Israeli government, and security dimensions related to a preliminary Israeli decision to eliminate all the top Hamas leaders who had a role in planning the October 7 operations.
Although Israel spoke cautiously in the early hours about an assassination attempt without final confirmation, the field data and mutual confessions determined the fate of Haddad, who had been monitored and pursued for a long time, as one of the key leaders who continued to lead the military wing and manage field operations efficiently throughout the months of the war.
