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Israel said Tuesday it carried out a strike in Gaza targeting Mohammed Odeh, the newly appointed commander of Hamas's armed wing, just days after his predecessor was killed in a similar Israeli operation in the Palestinian territory.
In a joint statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said the Israeli military struck Odeh.
The strike marks the second such Israeli operation against the leadership of the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades in a matter of days.
Odeh had been appointed to lead the Al-Qassam Brigades after Ezzedine Al-Haddad, his predecessor, was killed in a strike in Gaza earlier in May.
Al-Haddad himself had been one of the longest-serving Hamas military commanders to survive the war in Gaza and had taken over leadership of the armed wing following the killing of Mohammed Sinwar in May 2025.
The rapid turnover underscores the sustained pressure Israel has placed on Hamas's senior military command since the October 7, 2023, attacks, which killed around 1,200 people in southern Israel and saw more than 250 taken hostage.
Before his elevation to the top command, Odeh served as head of military intelligence within the Al-Qassam Brigades and was described by Israeli officials as one of the architects of the October 7 assault.
He had reportedly worked closely with Al-Haddad, and the two are said to have coordinated efforts to rebuild Hamas's military structure following earlier Israeli strikes on the group's leadership.
The Al-Qassam Brigades, founded in the early 1990s, serves as the main armed wing of Hamas and has been the principal target of Israel's military campaign in Gaza.
Israel has systematically sought to eliminate senior figures within the organization, a campaign that has moved with particular intensity through 2025 and into 2026. The outcome of Tuesday's strike on Odeh had not been confirmed at the time of reporting.
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