JERUSALEM - Israel confirmed Saturday that Ezzedine Al-Haddad, the chief of Hamas’ armed wing and a key architect of the October 7 attack, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.
The military and the Shin Bet domestic security agency said the strike took place on Friday in Gaza City. Two Hamas officials later confirmed Haddad’s death.
The Israeli military described Haddad as “one of the last senior commanders in Hamas' military wing who directed the planning and execution of the October 7th massacre.” He was also accused of managing the holding of Israeli hostages during the war.
Israel’s military chief Lieutenant Colonel Eyal Zamir called the killing a “significant operational achievement.” He said Haddad’s name came up repeatedly in conversations with returned hostages.
Hamas officials said Haddad was killed along with his wife and daughter. Photographs show mourners carrying his body, wrapped in a Hamas flag, from the rubble.
The October 7 attack killed 1,221 people in Israel, according to official figures, and militants took 251 hostages to Gaza. Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed more than 72,700 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry.