The Israeli military said on Saturday that a senior Hamas commander, Raed Saed, was killed in an airstrike targeting a vehicle in Gaza City, marking what would be the most significant assassination of a Hamas leader since the ceasefire came into effect in October.
The strike killed four people and wounded at least 25 others, according to Gaza health authorities. Hamas has not issued an official confirmation, and medical officials did not independently verify whether Saed was among the dead.
In a joint statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz said the operation was ordered in response to the activation of a Hamas explosive device that wounded Israeli forces earlier in the day. “The prime minister and the defence minister instructed the elimination of the terrorist Raed Saed, head of Hamas’s force buildup,” the statement said.
The Israeli military described Saed as “one of the architects” of the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the ongoing war in Gaza. Earlier on Saturday, the military reported that two Israeli reserve soldiers were lightly injured when an explosive device detonated during an operation to clear an area in southern Gaza.
An Israeli defence official said Saed was the intended target of the strike and identified him as the head of Hamas’s weapons manufacturing apparatus. Hamas sources have previously described Saed as the second-in-command of the group’s armed wing, ranking just below Izz el-Din al-Hadad. He had also served as the commander of Hamas’s Gaza City battalion, regarded as one of its largest and best-equipped units.
The war began after Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 hostages during an attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023. Israel’s subsequent military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 70,700 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians, according to Gaza health officials.
The ceasefire agreed on October 10 has allowed hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians to return to the devastated areas of Gaza City. Israeli forces have withdrawn from several positions in the city, and humanitarian aid deliveries have increased.
However, the truce has not fully halted violence. Palestinian health authorities say at least 386 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since the ceasefire began. Israel, for its part, says three of its soldiers have been killed during the same period and that it has continued operations against militant targets.
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