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Israel on Wednesday announced that it had killed Mohammed Odeh, the newly appointed head of Hamas’s armed wing in Gaza, in an airstrike carried out despite the ongoing ceasefire in the territory.
Odeh reportedly took over leadership of the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades after the killing of his predecessor, Ezzedine al-Haddad, on May 15.
Since the October 2023 attack by Hamas, Israel has intensified efforts to eliminate senior figures linked to the group, targeting leaders both inside Gaza and in other parts of the region.
According to Israeli authorities, Odeh is now the fourth commander of Hamas’s armed wing to be killed since the war began.
In a joint statement, the Israeli military and the Shin Bet domestic security agency confirmed that Odeh was killed on Tuesday.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the “commander of the armed wing of the Hamas terrorist organisation in Gaza was eliminated yesterday and sent to meet his associates in the depths of hell”.
A Hamas source, speaking to AFP, said Odeh’s wife and two children were also killed in the strike. The source added that funeral prayers for the family would be held on Wednesday in Gaza City.
Although Hamas never officially announced Odeh as the new leader of the brigades, he had long headed the group’s intelligence operations and was considered one of Hamas’s most senior remaining figures in Gaza.
On Tuesday night, a Gaza security source told AFP that western Gaza City was hit by heavy Israeli bombardment.
The source said there was “no information on the target”, but noted that “the scale and intensity of the attack fuelled speculation that the target was commander Mohammed Odeh, who succeeded the martyred commander Ezzedine al-Haddad”.
Katz later reiterated Israel’s determination to target everyone linked to the October 7 attack.
“We committed ourselves to eliminating everyone who led the October 7 massacre, and that is what we will do: they are all marked for death, wherever they may be,” Katz said in a post on X.
He also restated Israel’s broader objective of removing Hamas from power in Gaza and referenced plans tied to the displacement of Palestinians from the territory.
“The plan for voluntary migration from Gaza will also be implemented — everything will be done at the right time and in the right way,” he said.
The proposed displacement of Gazans has been strongly backed by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. Former US President Donald Trump had previously expressed support for the idea before later distancing himself from it.
In February, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, criticised proposals “aimed at making a permanent demographic change in Gaza”.
