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Hamas on Sunday confirmed the killing of senior leader Raed Saad along with few of his aides a day before by Israeli forces, as confirmed by the group’s Gaza chief Khalil al-Hayya confirmed.Speaking in a televised address on the militant group’s Al-Aqsa TV, Hayya was quoted by AFP saying, “The Palestinian people are currently going through difficult times and suffering greatly… with the martyrdom of more than 70,000 people, the latest of whom was the mujahid commander Raed Saad and his companions.”This comes a day after Israel announced that it had killed “one of the architects” of the October 7, 2023 attack Raed Saad.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that he and the country’s defence minister had personally authorised the assassination of Saad. A veteran member of Hamas, Saad had gradually risen through the ranks to become the armed wing’s second-in-command, according to two Arab intelligence officials. They said he spent much of the war operating deep inside Hamas’s tunnel network beneath Gaza City, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to comment publicly. The assassination attempt risks further destabilising the already fragile truce between Israel and Hamas, which has been repeatedly strained by bouts of violence. The ceasefire, brokered in mid-October by the United States and regional allies, led to the release of the last 20 surviving hostages held in Gaza in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. However, the truce has not brought an end to the fighting. Local health officials say more than 300 Palestinians, including children, have been killed in Israeli attacks since it came into force. The Israeli military has reported the deaths of at least three soldiers in combat over the same period. International mediators, including President Donald Trump, have sought to advance the next phase of the ceasefire, which would require Hamas to disarm and pave the way for a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Hamas has rejected calls to relinquish its weapons, viewing disarmament as equivalent to surrender, given that armed resistance to Israel is central to its ideology. Netanyahu has repeatedly warned that if Hamas refuses to disarm voluntarily, it will be forced to do so “the hard way.”
