IDF confirms Hamas Gaza chief Izz al-Din al-Haddad killed in airstrike

Sources in terror group also confirm death of Haddad, known as ‘the Ghost’ and long sought by Israel; was one of last surviving architects of Oct. 7 onslaught and had in the past ‘surrounded himself with hostages’

The Israel Defense Forces on Saturday confirmed killing Hamas military chief Izz al-Din al-Haddad, the terror group’s leader in Gaza, in a “precise strike” on Gaza City in the Strip’s north the previous day.

In a statement Saturday, the military said Haddad had recently “acted to rebuild the capabilities of the terrorist organization’s military wing and to plan numerous terror attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops,” despite a US-brokered ceasefire agreement in October.

A senior Hamas official and a member of the group’s armed wing were also cited by AFP and Reuters confirming Haddad’s death. Haddad was killed along with his wife and a daughter, according to another Hamas source.

AFP photographs showed mourners carrying the body of Haddad, wrapped in a Hamas flag, on a stretcher from the ruins of a building.

Separately, the IDF said it also killed two other Hamas terrorists who invaded Israel during the October 7 onslaught in recent strikes in the Strip. It said Khamer Iyad Muhammad Al-Matouq and Khaled Muhammad Salem Jouda were killed in separate strikes in northern Gaza in the past two weeks.

The military said the pair had recently attempted to carry out attacks on troops in Gaza, and had “posed an immediate threat to the forces.”

Another strike in central Gaza on Wednesday killed Abdel Rahman Mahmoud Jumaa Shafi, a member of Hamas’s Bureij Battalion, who the military said had advanced attacks on troops in Gaza.

The terror group had not officially commented on the killing of Haddad as of Saturday afternoon, even as witnesses said Gaza mosques announced his “martyrdom,” and Palestinian media published footage of a funeral procession and “martyr poster” for him in the Strip.

Nicknamed “The Ghost,” Haddad had survived multiple assassination attempts by Israel, according to Hamas sources. Israel confirmed on Friday that it had targeted Haddad, without saying whether the strike had succeeded.

Haddad, whom the IDF called “one of the architects of the brutal October 7 massacre,” took over his roles after the May 2025 killing of Mohammed Sinwar, the brother and successor of Yahya Sinwar, who led the terror group in the 2023 onslaught that sparked the war in Gaza.

“Throughout the war, Haddad was involved in holding many Israeli hostages in Hamas captivity. Haddad managed Hamas’s hostage captivity system and surrounded himself with hostages in an attempt to prevent his elimination,” the IDF said.

Israel’s last hostages in Gaza were freed as part of the October 2025 ceasefire.

Haddad joined the fledgling terror group in the 1980s and became one of its longest-surviving commanders. According to the military, he “maintained close ties with Hamas leadership” and played a “central role in Hamas’s terrorist rule” over the Strip.

He led Hamas’s Gaza City Brigade during the October 7 onslaught, and was one of the last remaining senior commanders “who directed the planning and execution of the October 7 massacre and the management of combat operations against IDF troops,” the IDF said.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir hailed his killing as a “significant operational success by the IDF led by the Southern Command, the Intelligence Directorate, the Air Force and the Shin Bet.”

Zamir said that “the name of the arch-terrorist” Haddad “came up again and again” in his conversations with former hostages, according to remarks published by the IDF.

“Today, we succeeded in eliminating him,” Zamir said. “The IDF will continue to pursue our enemies, strike, and settle accounts with everyone who took part in the October 7 massacre.”

Meanwhile, Zamir instructed the Southern Command to “maintain high operational readiness and to respond immediately to any attempt to harm our forces or the territory of the State of Israel,” the military said.

Israel vowed to kill Hamas leaders following the October 7 onslaught, and has since then killed senior Hamas officials, including the Sinwar brothers, Hamas politburo head Ismail Haniyeh and longtime military chief Muhammad Deif.

The attack saw thousands of Hamas-led terrorists storm southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, who were eventually returned in military operations and truce-hostage deals.

Israeli forces have killed over 72,000 people in Gaza, according to the Strip’s Hamas-run health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.

The IDF says it has killed over 23,000 combatants in Gaza and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.

Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas, including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.

Agencies and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.