Israel on Tuesday said it targeted the new chief of Hamas’ armed wing in a strike in Gaza, days after his predecessor was killed in a similar attack.
Gaza’s civil defence agency, which operates as a rescue service under Hamas, meanwhile said at least three people were killed and 20 wounded in an Israeli airstrike in the Rimal neighbourhood in western Gaza City.
“Under the direction of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz, the IDF has just carried out a strike in Gaza targeting Mohammed Odeh — the new commander of the military wing of the Hamas terrorist organisation and one of the architects of the October 7 massacre,” a joint statement issued by Netanyahu and Katz said.
It was not immediately clear if he had been killed in Tuesday’s strike.
Odeh was appointed as chief of the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades after his predecessor Ezzedine Al-Haddad was killed in a strike in Gaza earlier in May.
“Odeh served as head of Hamas intelligence during the October 7 massacre and was appointed approximately one week ago as successor to Ezzedine Al-Haddad,” the statement from Netanyahu and Katz said.
“Odeh was responsible for the murder, abduction, and injury of numerous Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers,” it said.
In the aftermath of the October 7 assault, Netanyahu pledged to target and eliminate the masterminds behind the attacks, which, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures, resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people.
Israel’s retaliatory response in Gaza has killed at least 72,803 people, according to the territory’s health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority.
Since Hamas’s cross-border assault, the Israeli military and intelligence services have waged a campaign targeting the group’s senior political leaders and militant commanders in Gaza and across the region.
Israel has claimed responsibility for assassinating Hamas’s former political chief Ismail Haniyeh.
Israeli soldiers also killed Yahya Sinwar, who was widely regarded as a key mastermind behind the October 7 attack and Mohammed Deif, the longtime commander of Hamas’s armed wing.
Israeli strikes have also targeted Hamas operatives in Lebanon, as well as senior Iran-backed Hezbollah commanders allied with the group, including former Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
