By Dawoud Abu Alkas, Rami Ayyub and Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA/JERUSALEM/CAIRO, May 15 (Reuters) – Gaza medics said Israel killed at least seven Palestinians, including a child, in airstrikes on Friday that Israel said targeted Hamas’ armed wing chief, though neither Israel nor the militants said whether he had been killed or wounded.
Hamas did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the fate of Izz al-Din al-Haddad, who became the militant group’s military chief in the Gaza Strip after Israel’s killing of commander Mohammad Sinwar in May 2025.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a joint statement with his defence minister that Haddad was an architect of the October 7, 2023, attacks that precipitated Israel’s two-year assault on the Palestinian territory.
He is the most senior Hamas official targeted with a strike by Israel since an October U.S.-backed deal that was meant to halt fighting in Gaza. The attack comes as Israel and Hamas remain deadlocked in talks to advance U.S. President Donald Trump’s post-war plan for Gaza.
Medics in Gaza said at least seven people, including three women and a child, were killed and at least 50 were injured in airstrikes targeting an apartment and a vehicle. It was not immediately clear if Haddad was one of the dead.
ISRAEL SAYS ‘HADDAD RESPONSIBLE FOR KILLING OF ISRAELIS’
In their joint statement, Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz said Haddad “was responsible for the murder, abduction, and harm inflicted on thousands of Israeli civilians (and) soldiers.”
They did not say whether they thought Haddad had been killed.
Medics in Gaza said the first airstrike targeted an apartment in the Gaza City area of Rimal, killing at least four and wounding several others. A second Israeli airstrike soon after targeted a vehicle on a nearby street, killing three, the medics said.
Reuters video footage from the scene showed flames engulfing an apartment in a mostly bombed-out building. Palestinians could be seen pulling at least one body from the wreckage, wrapped in a white plastic tarp.
Gaza’s Civil Defense spokesperson, Mahmoud Basal, said hundreds of people had been living inside the building that was targeted.
“The missile was fired without any pre-warning or notification. We are talking about a number of (dead). We are talking about a big number of wounded, among them families,” Basal said.
Israel has escalated its attacks in Gaza in the five weeks since halting its joint bombing with the U.S. in Iran, redirecting its fire back on the ruined Palestinian enclave where the military thinks Hamas fighters are tightening their grip.
The agreement reached last October halted major fighting in Gaza after two years of war between Israel and Hamas. But steps have faltered to reach a permanent settlement that would withdraw Israeli troops, disarm the militants and allow the ruined enclave to be rebuilt.
Israeli forces still occupy more than half of Gaza’s territory, where they have demolished most remaining buildings and ordered all residents out.
More than 2 million people now live in a tiny strip of territory along the coast, mainly in damaged structures or makeshift tents, where Hamas fighters have de facto control.
Some 850 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since the October ceasefire, according to figures that do not distinguish between combatants and civilians. Four Israeli soldiers were killed by militants during the same period. Hamas does not disclose figures for casualties among its fighters.
(Reporting by Rami Ayyub in Jerusalem and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo, Editing by Alexandra Hudson, Rod Nickel)
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