The body of Ezzedine Al-Haddad, head of the armed wing of Hamas, killed during a nighttime Israeli strike with members of his family, during his funeral in Gaza, May 16, 2026 (AFP / Omar AL-QATTAA)
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, with the Palestinian Islamist movement deploring “an immense loss” on Saturday.
The Israeli army and the Shin Bet, domestic intelligence, announced in a press release “the elimination of the terrorist Ezzedine al-Haddad”, information confirmed to AFP by two Hamas officials.
“He was assassinated during an Israeli strike” having targeted a residential building and a civilian vehicle in Gaza on Friday, said one of them.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has claimed responsibility for the assassination of several senior Hamas officials, including Yahya Sinouar, the leader of the armed group 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.
– “Major success” –
Smoke escapes from a residential building hit the day before by an Israeli strike in the Al-Ramal neighborhood in Gaza, May 16, 2026 (AFP / Omar AL-QATTAA)
The Ministry of Defense indicated on Friday that it had targeted him, without immediately confirming the death of the man it had presented as a “leading terrorist” and “one of the main architects” of October 7.
He was killed with his wife and daughter, according to another source within Hamas.
Their funeral took place on Saturday in Gaza City, with AFP footage showing a mourning crowd around Haddad’s body, wrapped in a Hamas flag.
The body of Ezzedine Al-Haddad, head of the armed wing of Hamas, killed during a nighttime Israeli strike with members of his family, during his funeral in Gaza, May 16, 2026 (AFP / Omar AL-QATTAA)
The chief of staff of the Israeli army, Eyal Zamir, hailed a “major operational success”. “In all the conversations I had with the freed hostages, his name… kept coming up,” he said in a separate statement.
And added: “today we succeeded in eliminating it. The Israeli army will continue to hunt down our enemies, to strike them and to demand accountability from all those who took part” in October 7.
According to Israel, Ezzedine al-Haddad “managed the hostage detention system, which he surrounded himself with to try to escape its elimination.”
Hamas paid tribute to one of the “greatest fighters” in Palestinian history, according to its spokesperson Hazem Qassem. “It’s an immense loss, but the path continues until liberation.”
Israeli forces also announced that they had killed three other fighters from the movement over the past two weeks, including two involved in October 7.
– Six assassination attempts –
The armed wing of Hamas, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, carried out this attack 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, placed under the authority of Hamas and whose figures are considered reliable by the UN.
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.
Residents pass in front of a residential building hit the day before by an Israeli strike in the Al-Ramal neighborhood in Gaza, May 16, 2026 (AFP / Omar AL-QATTAA)
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.
