Israel Strikes Gaza, Targeting Hamas Armed Wing Chief Mohammed Odeh

Israel said it targeted Mohammed Odeh, described as the new chief of the Hamas armed wing, in a Gaza strike on Tuesday, days after his predecessor was killed in a similar attack.

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yisrael Katz, in a joint statement, announced that the Israeli army carried out a raid in the Gaza Strip targeting محمد عودة, described in the statement as the new commander of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas”

Al-Jazeera Net

A joint statement issued by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defense minister Israel Katz said, "the IDF has just carried out a strike in Gaza targeting Mohammed Odeh," and it added that Odeh was appointed after Ezzedine Al-Haddad was killed in a strike in Gaza earlier in May.

Al-Jazeera Net

The Gaza civil defence agency, which operates as a rescue service under Hamas, said at least three people were killed and 20 wounded in an Israeli airstrike in the Rimal neighbourhood in western Gaza City.

The report said it was not immediately clear if Odeh had been killed in Tuesday’s strike, while it also described Odeh as one of the architects of the October 7 massacre and as having served as head of Hamas intelligence during the October 7 assault.

It also said Israel’s retaliatory response in Gaza has killed at least 72,803 people, according to the territory’s health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority.

While Israel announced it targeted Mohammed Odeh, the report said it was not immediately clear if he had been killed in Tuesday’s strike, and it framed the operation as the second such Israeli operation against the leadership of the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades in a matter of days.

Türkiye Today reported that in a joint statement Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said the Israeli military struck Odeh, and it said the outcome of Tuesday's strike on Odeh had not been confirmed at the time of reporting.

Si En En al-Arabiya

In a separate account, Al Jazeera Net said Israel’s Public Broadcasting Authority quoted an Israeli official confirming the death of the person dubbed the new Qassam commander محمد عودة, and it added that Channel 12 cited a security source as saying the operation to assassinate عودة had been successful.

Al Jazeera Net also reported that an Al-Shifa Hospital source said "three people killed and more than 20 injured" in Israeli airstrikes on the al-Rimal neighborhood in western Gaza City.

It further quoted Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal saying the al-Rimal neighborhood came under a ring of fire and that rescue teams continued efforts to recover victims.

The Middle East Forum framed the killings as a decapitation campaign, saying that on May 15 Israel eliminated Izz al-Din al-Haddad, better known inside Hamas as Abu Suhaib, and it described him as a founding member and former head of Hamas’s internal security apparatus.

“Israel announced on Tuesday that it targeted in the Gaza Strip the new commander of the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, who had recently been appointed to the position after the assassination of his predecessor”

Hespress

It asserted that with his death, Hamas had effectively lost the last figure capable of exercising unified battlefield control over its forces in Gaza, and it said Abu Suhaib assumed command of Hamas’s al Qassam Brigades in Gaza after Mohammed Sinwar’s death in May 2025.

The same source claimed Abu Suhaib distributed written operational orders to Hamas battalion commanders the night before the assault that it said slaughtered 1,200 Israelis and resulted in the kidnapping of 251 people.

It also tied the stakes to U.S. interests, saying the United States operates a Civil-Military Coordination Center in southern Israel to oversee the October 2025 ceasefire arrangements and that repeated Hamas violations have contributed to continued violence inside Gaza against civilians and anti-Hamas forces that operate inside the Strip.

In parallel, newagebd.net said Israel has waged a campaign targeting Hamas’s senior political leaders and militant commanders in Gaza and across the region, and it said Israel has claimed responsibility for assassinating Hamas’s former political chief Ismail Haniyeh.