Mourners carry portraits of Ezzedine Al-Haddad, the slain chief of the Qassam Brigades -- the armed wing of Palestinian movement Hamas, who was killed in an overnight Israeli strike along with his daughter and wife, during their funeral in Gaza City. AFP
Since the war on Gaza erupted, the Israeli military and intelligence services have waged an assassination campaign targeting the group's senior political leaders and militant commanders in Gaza and across the region.
The military said Friday it had carried out an airstrike in Gaza targeting Haddad, before confirming his death on Saturday.
A Hamas official told AFP that Haddad had been killed in an Israeli strike on a residential building.
"Senior commander... Ezzedine Al-Haddad was assassinated in an Israeli strike targeting a residential apartment and a civilian vehicle in Gaza City yesterday," the official said.
Haddad was killed along with his wife and a daughter, according to another Hamas source.
AFP photographs showed mourners carrying Haddad's body, wrapped in a Hamas flag, on a stretcher from the ruins of a building.
It was later taken to a mosque where relatives and mourners offered prayers before carrying it through the streets for burial.
The military said Haddad was one of the last senior commanders in Hamas's military wing who directed the planning and execution of the October 7th attacks.
'Immense loss'
Hazem Qassem, a Hamas spokesman, said Haddad was one of the "greatest fighters" in Palestinian history.
"Haddad stands among the towering figures of the Palestinian revolution, having sacrificed greatly for the freedom of Jerusalem and for its prisoners," Qassem told AFP.
"This loss is immense, but the path forward continues until liberation."
Over the course of the war, Israel has claimed responsibility for the assassinations of several Hamas leaders, including Yahya Sinwar, widely regarded as a mastermind of the October 7 attack.
It also killed Mohammed Deif, the longtime commander of Hamas's armed wing and another key architect of the attack.
Israeli strikes have also targeted Hamas operatives in Lebanon, as well as senior Hezbollah commanders allied with the group, including former Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
Later on Saturday, in a separate statement the military said its forces had killed three more Hamas fighters over the past two weeks, including two who took part in the October 2023 attacks.
Born in 1970, Haddad assumed command of the armed wing in May last year following the killing of his immediate predecessor, also in an Israeli strike, according to a Hamas source.
He had previously survived six assassination attempts by Israel, the source told AFP.
He was also a founder of Hamas's security service and oversaw prisoner exchanges, including those conducted under the ceasefire reached in October last year.
Israel's war on in Gaza has killed more than 72,700 people, according to the territory's health ministry.
The figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.
Despite an October ceasefire, Gaza remains gripped by daily violence as Israeli strikes continue.
At least 856 Palestinians have been killed since the truce began, according to the territory's health ministry.
**This story was edited by Ahram Online.
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