Israel’s military says it killed senior Hamas commander in Gaza

Israel’s military said it killed a top Hamas commander in Gaza who it described as one of the architects of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the two-year-long war.  The military said it killed Raed Saad after an explosive device detonated and wounded two soldiers in the territory’s south.

Hamas, in a statement, did not confirm Saad’s death. It said a civilian vehicle had been struck outside Gaza City and asserted it was “a brazen criminal breach” of the U.S.-led ceasefire that took effect on Oct. 10.

Saad served as the Hamas official in charge of manufacturing and previously led the militant group’s operations division. The Israeli statement said that he had been “engaged in rebuilding the terrorist organization” in a violation of the ceasefire.

An Israel Defense Forces official asserted that Israel did not violate the ceasefire agreement because, under the deal, the military is permitted to strike targets actively engaged in terrorism.

“Hamas has been blatantly violating the ceasefire agreement and is failing to uphold its obligations,” the military official said. “Day after day, Hamas terrorists breach the ceasefire agreement, crossing the yellow line, threatening the lives of IDF soldiers operating in the authorized areas, and moreover undermining the ongoing efforts to maintain stability.”

The Israeli strike west of Gaza City killed four people, according to an Associated Press journalist who saw their bodies arrive at Shifa Hospital. Another three were wounded, according to Al-Awda hospital.

Israel and Hamas have repeatedly accused each other of truce violations.

Israeli airstrikes and shootings in Gaza have killed at least 386 Palestinians since the ceasefire took hold, according to Palestinian health officials. Israel has said recent strikes are in retaliation for militant attacks against its soldiers, and that troops have fired on Palestinians who approached the “Yellow Line” between the Israeli-controlled majority of Gaza and the rest of the territory.

Israel has demanded that Palestinian militants return the remains of the final hostage, Ran Gvili, from Gaza and called it a condition of moving to the second and more complicated phase of the ceasefire. That lays out a vision for ending Hamas’ rule and seeing the rebuilding of a demilitarized Gaza under international supervision.

The initial Hamas-led 2023 terrorist attack on southern Israel killed around 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. Of the hostages who were taken into Gaza, 148 were either freed as part of previous ceasefire agreements or rescued by Israeli forces, according to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The bodies of another 57 hostages were returned or recovered, the ministry says.

Israel’s two-year campaign in Gaza has killed more than 70,650 Palestinians, roughly half of them women and children, according to the territory’s Hamas-led Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between militants and civilians in its count.

Much of Gaza has been destroyed and most of the population of over 2 million has been displaced. Humanitarian aid entry into the territory continues to be below the level set by the ceasefire terms, and Palestinians who lost limbs in the war face a shortage of prosthetic limbs and long delays in medical evacuations.