Senior Hamas military commander killed in Israeli airstrike on residential building in Gaza City

Izz ad-Din al-Haddad, commander of Hamas's armed wing, was killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on Friday. A Hamas official confirmed the death to BBC News. Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel Katz said in a joint statement that Haddad had been responsible for the murder, kidnapping and injury of thousands of Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers.

Israel described Izz ad-Din al-Haddad as one of the architects of the October 7 massacre. Netanyahu and Katz added that Haddad had refused to implement the agreement led by US President Trump to disarm Hamas and demilitarise the Gaza Strip. " Three eyewitnesses told BBC News that a residential building known as Al-Mu'taz in the centre of Gaza City was struck by three missiles launched simultaneously from two separate directions.

The air strike on the apartment block sparked a large fire. Rescue teams faced significant difficulties evacuating the wounded, witnesses said. One eyewitness reported that a body and several injured people had been removed from the building.

Armed members of Hamas dressed in civilian clothing evacuated a severely wounded person through a side entrance and placed him in a vehicle. Sources said the vehicle may have been carrying Haddad after he had been seriously injured in the initial strike. 5km from the apartment block killed three people, according to eyewitnesses and a local source.

A senior Israeli security official said preliminary information indicated that Haddad had been successfully targeted. A ceasefire in Gaza came into effect on 10 October. Israel has conducted regular strikes across the Palestinian territory since the ceasefire.

The Israeli government maintains it has license to target Hamas members while accusing the group of refusing to disarm in breach of the ceasefire agreement. The two-year-long Gaza war was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023. About 1,200 people were killed in that attack and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 72,744 people have been killed in Gaza during the war according to the Hamas-run health ministry. The US announced the start of the second phase of the plan in January.

Talks on disarmament remain deadlocked while Hamas has reactivated its police force.