Israel carried out an airstrike in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday evening, reportedly targeting Mohammed Odeh, Hamas’s newly appointed military chief, just 11 days after the killing of his predecessor.
According to Gaza’s civil defense agency, which operates under Hamas, the strike in the Rimal area of western Gaza City left at least three people dead and around 20 others injured.
There has been no official confirmation from Hamas regarding Odeh’s fate, and Israel has not formally announced his death. However, Hebrew media reports, citing preliminary assessments, suggested the operation was successful. An Israeli source told the public broadcaster Kan that Odeh had been killed.
In a joint statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said Odeh had previously served as Hamas’s intelligence chief during the October 7, 2023, attacks. They added that he was recently appointed to replace Izz al-Din al-Haddad as both the leader of Hamas in Gaza and head of its military wing.
Al-Haddad himself was killed in a similar Israeli strike in Gaza City on May 15. Netanyahu and Katz accused Odeh of being responsible for the killing, kidnapping, and injury of numerous Israeli civilians and soldiers.
Reports from the Saudi outlet Asharq Al-Awsat indicated that Odeh was a close associate of al-Haddad and had worked alongside him to rebuild Hamas’s organizational structure after the deaths of senior leaders Muhammad Deif and Muhammad Sinwar during the ongoing war triggered by the October 7 attack.
The report also noted that Odeh had initially been considered to lead the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades following Sinwar’s death in May 2025, but he reportedly declined the role at that time. However, this claim could not be independently confirmed. Sinwar’s brother, Yahya Sinwar, had led Hamas before being killed by Israeli forces in May 2024.
Odeh was reportedly involved in gathering intelligence on Israeli military positions near the Gaza border ahead of the October 7 attacks. Believed to be in his late 40s or early 50s, he spent most of his life in Gaza and had long-standing ties to Hamas, including involvement in its internal security operations aimed at identifying suspected Israeli informants.
Israel had targeted Odeh on multiple occasions in the past. In one strike in 2025 on his family home in Gaza, his eldest son, Amr, was killed.
Netanyahu and Katz reiterated Israel’s stance, saying the country would continue to pursue all those involved in the October 7 attacks, stating that “sooner or later, Israel will reach them all.”
Despite a ceasefire in place since October, Israel has continued operations against individuals linked to the attack. A recent Wall Street Journal report indicated that Israel has compiled a list of Palestinians believed to have participated in the হামास-led assault and is working to either eliminate or capture them.
The list reportedly includes individuals who crossed into Israel during the October 7 attack, as well as Hamas leaders involved in planning it. That হামास-led assault resulted in around 1,200 deaths and 251 hostages, mostly civilians, marking the deadliest attack against Jews since the Holocaust.
In addition to targeting senior figures like al-Haddad and Odeh, the Israeli military also announced last week that it had killed another Hamas operative involved in the October 7 incursion, though the individual was not publicly identified.
