The Israeli military said it killed Raad Saad, a senior commander of Hamas’s Qassam Brigades, in a targeted strike on a car in the Gaza Strip on Saturday. According to Israeli authorities, Saad played a key role in planning the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which triggered the ongoing two-year conflict in Gaza.
The strike marks the most high-profile assassination of a senior Hamas figure since a ceasefire was declared two months ago.
The strike targeted a vehicle travelling along Rashid Road on the Hamas-controlled side of the Gaza ceasefire line, Palestinian media reported, citing four people killed and more than 20 injured.
In a joint statement, Israel's prime minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz said Raad Saad was killed in retaliation for an earlier incident in which two Israeli troops were injured by an explosive in southern Gaza.
Saad “was one of the architects of the October 7 massacre and in recent days had been engaged in restoring the terror organization and in planning and carrying out attacks against Israel, as well as rebuilding an attack force, in blatant violation of the ceasefire rules and Hamas’s commitments to respect President [Donald] Trump’s plan,” Netanyahu and Katz stated, as cited by Times of Israel.
Netanyahu stated that he and the defence minister had personally authorized the operation to assassinate Saad.
Who was Raad Saad?
Saad, a long-time Hamas member, had gradually risen through the ranks to become the second-in-command of the group’s armed wing, according to two Arab intelligence officials, as cited by NYT.
According to the Israeli military, Saad founded and commanded Hamas’s Gaza City Brigade and played a key role in establishing the group’s naval force. He was later appointed chief of Hamas’s operations headquarters.
In that role, Saad helped plan the group’s operation to infiltrate Israel and target the IDF’s Gaza Division, known to the military as “Jericho’s Walls.” The operation was launched on October 7, 2023, triggering the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
Saad, as operations chief, helped establish Hamas’s elite Nukhba Force, which led the October 7 invasion of Israel. In 2021, he was removed from his position as operations chief by then-Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, reportedly due to personal disagreements.
Following his dismissal, Saad continued to serve in other roles within Hamas’s military wing, most recently as chief of the group’s weapons manufacturing headquarters and as a deputy to Hamas’s most recent military chief, Izz al-Din Hadadd.
Saad survived multiple Israeli assassination attempts, including the most recent in June 2024. He was reportedly at Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital during an Israeli raid in March of that year but is believed to have escaped unharmed.
Saad’s arrests date back decades: he was jailed by Israel in 1990 for his involvement with Hamas and later detained by the Palestinian Authority in the late 1990s, as cited by Times of Israel.
The assassination of Saad could further strain the fragile truce between Israel and Hamas, which has already been tested by repeated bouts of violence.
The truce has not fully halted the fighting. According to local health officials, Israeli attacks have killed more than 300 Palestinians, including children, since the agreement took effect. The Israeli military reports that at least three Israeli soldiers have also been killed in combat.