Israel claims to have killed senior Hamas commander, Raed Saad, in Gaza

There was no immediate confirmation from Hamas or from medics that Saad was among the dead.

The Israeli military sats it has killed senior Hamas commander Raed Saad in a strike in Gaza City.

The attack on Saturday killed five people and wounded at least 25, according to Gaza health authorities.

Hamas in a statement did not confirm the death of Raed Saad. It said a civilian vehicle had been struck outside Gaza City and asserted it was a violation of the ceasefire that took effect on October.

In a post on Telegram, the army alleged that the commander had been operating to re-establish Hamas’s capabilities, which have been severely depleted by more than two years of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. It described him as one of the architects of the October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel.

If Saad was killed, it would be the highest-profile assassination of a senior Hamas figure since a fragile ceasefire deal came into effect in October.

An Israeli defence official told the Reuters news agency that Saad had been targeted in the attack, describing him as the head of Hamas’s weapons manufacturing force.

Hamas sources have also described him as the second-in-command of the group’s armed wing, after Izz al-Din al-Haddad.

Saad used to head Hamas’s Gaza City battalion, one of the group’s largest and best-equipped, those sources said.

Since the ceasefire started in October, Israel has continued to attack Gaza daily – reaching nearly 800 times and killing at least 386 people – in a clear breach of the agreement, according to authorities in Gaza.

Israel also continues to block the majority of aid trucks from entering the enclave. The United Nations General Assembly on Friday overwhelmingly backed a resolution demanding that Israel open unrestricted humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip, stop attacking UN facilities, and comply with international law, in line with its obligations as an occupying power.