Israel Kills Mohammad Awwad, Hamas Qassam Commander, After Airstrike in Gaza City

Israel announced the assassination of Mohammad Awwad, the new commander of Hamas’s armed wing, after an airstrike targeted his headquarters in the heart of Gaza City, according to مونت كارلو الدولية.

The Israeli army said the strike was a “precise military operation” carried out in the al-Rimal neighborhood in northern Gaza after “months of intelligence surveillance” to track Awwad’s movements, and it said the attack was directed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yisrael Katz.

Al-Jazeera Net

The Gaza Health Ministry said at least six people were killed since Tuesday evening after striking the al-Kiyali residential building in a busy market area on the eve of Eid al-Adha, with at least five rockets hitting the building simultaneously, and a second strike also hit an adjacent apartment, as described by مونت كارلو الدولية.

CNN Arabic reported that Israel announced it targeted Mohammad Awwad in a strike west of Gaza City 11 days after assassinating his predecessor, and that the raid killed at least three people and injured more than 10 others, according to Gaza’s Shifa Hospital.

CNN Arabic also said it was not yet clear whether Awwad was killed in the attack, while the Israeli joint statement quoted by CNN Arabic said: “Awwad was responsible for killing, kidnapping, and injuring many civilians and Israeli soldiers.”

While Israel described the strike as targeting Awwad, عرب 48 reported that seven people were martyred and 20 others were wounded by Israeli gunfire in several areas of Gaza since Tuesday morning, and it tied the escalation to continued violations of the fragile ceasefire.

عرب 48 said three martyrs were killed by a strike from an Israeli drone that targeted a civilian vehicle in the Sabra neighborhood south of Gaza City, one man was shot near the Mawasi area in Khan Younis, and another person was martyred by a drone strike targeting a tent housing displaced people on the coast of Gaza City.

Al-Jazeera Net

In a separate account, Al-Jazeera Net described Al-Qassam Brigades releasing a video clip mourning Robin Yusuf al-Nuno, who it said was martyred during fierce battles with Israeli army forces that infiltrated the Gaza Strip on October 31, 2024.

Al-Jazeera Net said the recording included a field exchange in which al-Nuno told Abdul Karim al-Nafar that Israeli soldiers were crowded inside one of the schools, and it showed al-Nafar firing a Yasin (105) homemade missile at the soldiers.

Al-Jazeera Net also included a testament in which al-Nuno told his mother: “He asks his mother not to cry for him, but to cheer, viewing his martyrdom as a wedding.”

عرب 48 said that according to data from the Health Ministry in the Strip, since the truce took effect on Oct 11, 2025, 1,072 Palestinians have been martyred and 3,463 others wounded, and it put the total toll of the Israeli aggression on Gaza since Oct 7, 2023 at 73,098 martyrs and 173,571 injured.

“The Israeli-Palestinian conflict At a Naples demonstration, an 82-foot banner bore the names of 18,000 Palestinian children killed in Gaza”

CNN Arabic

The same report described Israel continuing to violate the ceasefire through artillery shelling, ground and sea strikes, air raids, as well as demolitions of homes and residential and civilian facilities and attacks on the tents of the displaced and shelters.

Palestine Chronicle, meanwhile, highlighted Al-Qassam’s release of footage focused on Ahmed Salim al-Ghamari, a platoon commander in the Badr al-Kubra Battalion of Al-Qassam’s Al-Shati Camp Brigade in western Gaza City, documenting that he remained inside a combat tunnel for more than 50 consecutive nights while directing military operations.

Palestine Chronicle said Al-Qassam stated al-Ghamari was killed on December 27, 2024, during direct confrontations with Israeli forces operating in Gaza City, and it quoted al-Ghamari telling fighters: “Advance, don’t flinch… wait for it, then strike.”

The stakes in the sources also include leadership targeting and battlefield persistence, with مونت كارلو الدولية describing Awwad as one of the masterminds behind the October 7 attack and saying Israel would continue to pursue anyone who participated, while Al-Qassam’s media releases continued to document commanders’ battlefield roles and deaths.