A top Hamas military commander and “one of the architects” of the gruesome Oct. 7 massacre was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza Saturday, thrusting an already fragile cease-fire into further peril.
The Israeli Defense Forces said Saad, a member of the Qassam Brigades, the terror group’s military wing, had been involved in efforts to “restore and manufacture the group’s weapons.”
He served as chief of Hamas’ weapons manufacturing headquarters and is considered deputy commander to the terror group’s latest military chief, Izz al-Din Haddad, the Times of Israel reported.
Raad Saad was a senior commander with Hamas.
Saad was taken out along with three others while driving on the Rashid coastal road, an Israeli official said, the outlet reported.
He was believed to be one of the last senior military personnel still stationed in war-torn Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the PM and Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered the attack on Saad, following an explosive device detonating and injuring two Israeli soldiers in Gaza earlier Saturday.
Saad “was one of the architects of the October 7 massacre and in recent days had been engaged in restoring the terror organization and in planning and carrying out attacks against Israel, as well as rebuilding an attack force, in blatant violation of the cease-fire rules and Hamas’s commitments to respect President [Donald] Trump’s plan,” the two officials said in a statement.
The Israeli army said that Hamas was trying to “restore its capabilities and strengthen itself” in recent weeks.
It is the latest flare-up inside Gaza since the signing of a US-brokered peace deal in October, which resulted in the release of the 20 living hostages held by Hamas who were seized in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.
The IDF said the soliders were injured while clearing the area of terrorist infrastructure in Southern Gaza.
It said “repeated attempts by the Hamas terror organization to carry out terrorist attacks were identified, including the use of explosive devices against IDF forces, actions that constitute a blatant violation of the agreement,” the military said in a statement.
Israel did not inform the Trump Administration in advance of the strike on Saad, Axios reported, citing an Israeli official.
Hamas slammed the Jewish state for “continuously” violating the cease-fire agreement in response to the strike that killed Saad.
“This crime confirms again that the occupation is deliberately seeking to undermine the ceasefire agreement and thwart it with continuously escalating violations,” the terror group said in a statement.
Israel “bears the full responsibility for the results of its crimes against our Palestinian nation,” the statement added.
Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike that reportedly killed Raad Saad in Gaza City, on December 13, 2025. REUTERS
Saad had been involved in efforts to “restore and manufacture the group’s weapons,” according to the IDF. REUTERSAlthough the fragile cease-fire has so far held, the strike comes as the agreement is set to enter a new phase, which includes the disarmament of Hamas — a huge sticking point due to the terror group’s resistance to relinquishing their weapons.
President Trump has said that he plans to advance the peace deal to its second phase within weeks.
Still to be determined is how a “Board of Peace,” overseen by Trump and other world leaders, would function and how to set up an internal security force.
Israel says three of its soldiers have been murdered since the cease-fire agreement two months ago, and the Hamas-run Palestinian Ministry of Health claims nearly 400 Palestinians have been killed.
Saturday’s IDF strike came in response to an attack on IDF forces inside the Gaza Strip using an improvised explosive device, wounding two, military intelligence sources told the Jerusalem Post.
The Post has reached out to the White House for comment.
