A senior official in the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas told Reuters that the head of the group's military wing, Izz al-Din al-Haddad, has died, a day after Israel announced it had carried out airstrikes on targets in Gaza where he was.
According to witnesses in Gaza City, mosques in the north of the area announced over loudspeakers that the Hamas commander had been "martyred."
If officially confirmed, al-Haddad would be the highest-ranking Hamas official killed by Israeli strikes since the US-backed ceasefire in October. However, Hamas has yet to issue an official statement on his death, Reuters reported.
On the other hand, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a joint statement that al-Haddad was the target of airstrikes carried out on Wednesday, but did not confirm whether he had been eliminated.
