The head of the armed wing of Hamas, who played a key role in the October 7 attack, according to Israel, was killed in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army and the Palestinian Islamist movement announced on Saturday, the day after a strike targeting him.
Il was assassinated in an Israeli strike targeting a residential apartment and a civilian vehicle yesterday [vendredi] Gaza
according to a Hamas official.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has claimed responsibility for the assassination of several senior Hamas officials, including Yahya Sinouar, its leader in Gaza, killed on October 16, 2024 and considered the mastermind of the attacks.
Ezzedine al-Haddad had long been in the army’s sights: he is described as the last high-ranking Hamas leader still present in the Gaza Strip to have participated in the organization of the massacre
in the words of an Israeli military official.
The image, transmitted by Israel, of the building where Ezzedine al-Haddad was allegedly killed.
Photo : Getty Images / AFP / OMAR AL-QATTAA
Un « architecte » du 7 octobre
The Ministry of Defense announced on Friday that it had targeted him, without immediately confirming the death of the man it had presented as a leading terrorist
et one of the main architects
from October 7.
He was killed with his wife and daughter, according to another source within Hamas.
Their funeral took place Saturday morning in Gaza City. Images from Agence France-Presse showed a mourning crowd around al-Haddad’s coffin, wrapped in a Hamas flag.
Le chef d’état-major de l’armée israélienne, Eyal Zamir, a salué un major operational success
. In all the conversations I had with the freed hostages, his name […] kept coming back
he said in a separate statement.
He added: Today we managed to eliminate it. The Israeli army will continue to hunt down our enemies, strike them and hold all those who took part to account
to October 7.
The Defense Minister accuses Ezzedine al-Haddad of being responsible for the murder, kidnapping and suffering of thousands of Israeli civilians and Israeli army soldiers
.
He held our hostages in brutal conditions of captivity, orchestrated terrorist attacks against our forces, and refused to implement the agreement proposed by US President Donald Trump to disarm Hamas and demilitarize the Gaza Strip.
he said on Friday.
Six assassination attempts
The armed wing of Hamas, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, led the attack on October 7, 2023 against localities in southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, according to the Israeli authorities. She had also kidnapped 251 hostages, taken to Gaza.
More than 72,700 Palestinians were killed in Israel’s military campaign of retaliation, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which is under the authority of Hamas and whose figures are considered reliable by theHIM.
The vast majority of infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, where around two million Palestinians live, has been destroyed by Israel since October 7, 2023. (File photo)
Photo : Reuters / Stringer
A truce came into effect on October 10, 2025 in the Palestinian territory, part of which is controlled by Hamas and the other by the Israeli army.
Born in 1970, Ezzedine al-Haddad took command of the armed wing of Hamas in May 2025, after the death of his predecessor, already in an Israeli strike, according to the source within the Islamist movement.
He had previously survived six assassination attempts by Israel, she said.
At the origin of the creation of the Hamas security services, he was responsible for supervising exchanges between hostages held in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners.
In addition to Yahya Sinouar, the Israeli army killed Mohammed Deif, commander in chief of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades and another mastermind of the attacks, in July 2024.
Israeli strikes also targeted Hamas leaders abroad as well as senior commanders of Lebanese Hezbollah allied with the group, including former leader Hassan Nasrallah.
