Israeli airstrikes killed at least seven Palestinians in Gaza on Friday (15 May), including a child, as Israel said it had launched an operation targeting Hamas military commander Izz al-Din al-Haddad.
Neither Israeli officials nor Hamas confirmed whether Haddad had been killed or injured in the attack.
The strikes hit Gaza City’s Rimal district, where medics said an apartment building and a nearby vehicle were targeted within minutes of each other. According to emergency workers, at least three women were among the dead, while around 50 people were wounded.
Haddad is regarded as Hamas’ most senior military figure in Gaza following the killing of commander Mohammad Sinwar by Israeli forces in May 2025.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz described him as one of the key organisers of the 7 October 2023 attacks on Israel, which triggered the war in Gaza.
In a joint statement, Netanyahu and Katz accused Haddad of being “responsible for the murder, abduction, and harm inflicted on thousands of Israeli civilians and soldiers”. They stopped short, however, of saying whether the operation had succeeded in killing him.
The attack marks the highest-profile attempt by Israel to eliminate a senior Hamas figure since the ceasefire arrangement brokered with U.S. backing last October. That agreement largely halted the fighting after two years of war, though negotiations over a lasting settlement have since stalled.
Talks remain deadlocked over competing demands surrounding the future governance of Gaza, the withdrawal of Israeli troops, and the disarmament of Hamas. The impasse has unfolded alongside renewed military operations and worsening humanitarian conditions across the territory.
Footage filmed by Reuters at the scene showed flames tearing through an upper floor of a heavily damaged residential block. Residents and rescue workers were seen pulling casualties from the rubble, with at least one body wrapped in a white plastic sheet.
Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for Gaza’s Civil Defence agency, said the building had been sheltering hundreds of displaced people when it was hit.
“The missile was fired without any pre-warning or notification,” Basal said. “We are talking about a number of dead. We are talking about a big number of wounded, among them families.”
Medical officials said the first strike hit an apartment in Rimal, killing four people and injuring several others. A second strike shortly afterwards targeted a vehicle on a nearby street, leaving three more dead.
Israel has intensified its operations in Gaza over the past five weeks after ending a period in which its military focus had shifted towards Iran during a joint bombing campaign with the United States. Israeli officials believe Hamas fighters have been regrouping inside the enclave amid the relative lull in large-scale combat.
Despite the ceasefire reached last October, Israeli forces still control more than half of Gaza, according to Palestinian officials and aid agencies.
Large areas of the territory have been reduced to rubble, with much of the population displaced into overcrowded coastal zones where many are living in tents or damaged buildings.
More than two million Palestinians remain confined to a narrow strip along the Mediterranean coast, where Hamas continues to exercise de facto authority.
According to Palestinian figures, around 850 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since the October ceasefire came into effect, though the data does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Israeli authorities say four of their soldiers have been killed by Hamas fighters during the same period. Hamas has not released casualty figures for its own members.
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