Sawt Falasteen - Israel kills chief of Hamas armed wing in Gaza strike

Since Hamas's October 2023 attack, Israel has systematically targeted the group's leaders, both in Gaza and across the region.

Odeh is the fourth head of the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades that Israel says it has killed since the start of the Gaza war.

In a joint statement, the Israeli military and the Shin Bet domestic security agency said Odeh died on Tuesday, saying he had been appointed head of the brigades after the May 15 killing of Ezzedine al-Haddad.

In a statement confirming Odeh as its chief of staff, Hamas's armed wing said he was killed in an Israeli strike on Tuesday evening.

"With great pride, honour, dignity, and defiance, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades announce the martyrdom of one of the foremost leaders of the Palestinian resistance," it said, adding that he was killed "in a cowardly assassination operation that resulted in the martyrdom of him, his wife, and his children".

A Hamas official told AFP that three of Odeh's children were killed, including two adult men and a girl under 18.

Odeh and his family's funeral took place Wednesday in Gaza City, with hundreds of mourners in attendance, an AFP journalist reported.

An AK-47 rifle was laid on Odeh's corpse as the crowd carried him to the mosque for funerary prayers.

Noting that Odeh was killed during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, Bassem Abu Odeh, a cousin, told AFP that the deceased and his family "were ready to welcome Eid, but instead the criminal Zionists welcomed and targeted them with missiles".

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Odeh was "sent to meet his associates in the depths of hell".

Odeh had long been the head of Hamas's intelligence service and was one of the group's most senior surviving figures in the Gaza Strip.

On Wednesday evening, the Israeli army said it "struck two central Hamas terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip," with Israeli media reporting it targeted a Hamas brigade commander and a deputy commander.

Gaza's civil defence agency, which operates as a rescue service under Hamas, said 10 people were killed and several more were wounded in the strike in central Gaza City. A medical source confirmed five children were among the dead.

- 'Marked for death' -

Israel has previously killed Hamas's former political chief Ismail Haniyeh, as well as Yahya Sinwar, who was widely regarded as the mastermind of Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack which triggered the devastating Gaza war.

It also killed Mohammed Deif, the longtime commander of Hamas's armed wing, as well as Mohammed Sinwar, who succeeded his brother Yahya Sinwar as Gaza chief.

"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 his post on X.

The Israeli military's Arabic-language spokeswoman, Lieutenant Colonel Ella Waweya, said "the position of commander of Hamas's military wing has become the shortest-lived job in Gaza".

"The question is no longer who's next -- but how long they have left," she wrote on X.

Defence minister Katz repeated Israel's goal of ending Hamas's rule over the Palestinian territory and alluded to a plan for the forced displacement of its residents.

"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 displacement of Gazans is a project backed by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

US President Donald Trump previously expressed support for the idea before ditching it.

In February, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, denounced plans "aimed at making a permanent demographic change in Gaza".

- Daily violence -

Hamas's Lebanese ally Hezbollah issued a statement of condolences for Odeh's killing, saying that all Israeli attempts "to undermine this resistance by targeting its leadership and fighters will end in failure".

Gaza remains gripped by daily violence, with both the Israeli military and Hamas accusing one another of violating the truce in effect since October 10.

More than 900 people have been killed by Israel since the ceasefire, according to Gaza's health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.

Israel still retains control over 60 percent of the Gaza Strip, including all entry and exit points, while the population is concentrated on the coast.

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N.AbuHussein--SF-PST