The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Saturday morning confirmed the elimination of Hamas’s Gaza-based chief, Izz al-Din al-Haddad. He became Hamas’s so-called military chief following the death of his predecessor, Mohammed Sinwar, nearly a year ago.
Al-Haddad, who was also among the architects of the October 7th massacre, was taken out in an IDF strike on Friday. “Izz al-Din al-Haddad, Head of Hamas’ military wing and one of the last senior commanders involved in the planning of the October 7th massacre” was “eliminated,” the IDF announced. “Following the elimination of Mohammed Sinwar, Haddad assumed his role and worked to rebuild Hamas’ capabilities and planned numerous terror attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops.”
Al-Haddad’s killing is a devastating blow to the Palestinian-Islamic terror group, with repercussions beyond Gaza. In a 2025 article, Israel’s Ynetnews described him as “one of the last senior figures of the organization’s founding generation still alive in Gaza—if not the very last.”
Noting his role in the abduction and horrific treatment of the October 7th hostages, the IDF chief Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir revealed that in “every conversation I held with the hostages who returned, the name of the arch-terrorist Izz al-Din al-Haddad, one of the chief perpetrators of the October 7th massacre and the head of Hamas’ military wing, came up again and again.”
“Today, we succeeded in eliminating him,” he declared.
Shortly ahead of the IDF statement, Reuters cited Hamas sources confirming the elimination of their senior-most terrorist:
A senior Hamas official told Reuters on Saturday that the chief of the group’s military wing had died, a day after Israel said that it had carried out airstrikes targeting him.”Earlier, witnesses in Gaza City said that mosques had announced Izz al-Din al-Haddad’s “martyrdom.”
A clip posted on X showed a funeral procession of the terrorist chief, with Gaza residents chanting “Allahu Akbar” and other slogans glorifying Jihad.
The top Hamas terrorist was eliminated in a meticulously planned military operation, the Jerusalem Post reported:
The Air Force carried out the strike after receiving intelligence from the IDF’s Southern Command and Military Intelligence Directorate on Haddad’s location, which had been identified after years of military intelligence collection.Prior to the attack, the Air Force carried out a “deception operation” approved by Brig.-Gen. Omer Tischler. The operation was intended to prevent Hamas from detecting unusual activity in the western Negev and Gazan airspace while assuring that Hamas’s military wing, as well as Haddad’s inner circle, remained on low alert.
The IDF is on heightened alert for potential Hamas terror attacks following the high-profile elimination. “At the conclusion of the situational assessment, the Chief of the General Staff instructed the Southern Command to maintain a high level of operational readiness and to respond immediately to any attempt to harm our troops or the territory of the State of Israel,” the military said in a statement Saturday.
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