Israel announced Friday that it had attacked Hamas military wing chief Izz al-Din al-Haddad. According to Palestinian reports, an apartment in the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City was hit from the air.
Izz al-Din al-Haddad is the most senior Hamas figure inside the Gaza Strip. He serves as head of the "military wing" and was responsible for the hostage portfolio during the deals.
At the beginning of the war, he was the commander of the Gaza City Brigade. He is also considered to have been among those privy to the date of the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack. After the elimination of Ahmed Ghandour, commander of the northern Gaza Strip brigade, the entire area came under al-Haddad's responsibility. Following the eliminations of the heads of the "military wing," Mohammed Deif, Marwan Issa and Mohammed Sinwar, al-Haddad became head of the wing.
According to reports, al-Haddad survived a total of six elimination attempts, three of them during the latest war. As part of this, it was reported that an Israeli force had been sent to eliminate him at the house where he was hiding, but he was not found there.
At the beginning of the war, a $750,000 bounty was placed on al-Haddad's head. The Times claimed that, according to intelligence, al-Haddad constantly changed locations and relied on very few people outside his inner circle. According to Palestinian sources, two of his sons, who operated as terrorists, were eliminated during the war.
In an interview with Arab media in January, al-Haddad answered a question about whether Iran and Hezbollah had known about the terrorist attack in advance. "Given the large scale and the expected consequences of the attack, the brothers in the axis of resistance were updated on the situation," he said. "But we kept the timing of the zero hour within the narrowest possible circle to ensure the attack's success."
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, a released Israeli hostage met al-Haddad five times in captivity, at times sleeping with him in the same hideout apartment.
