Israel said it killed Mohammed Odeh, the newly appointed head of Hamas's armed wing in Gaza, in a strike carried out the previous day. The announcement came only days after Israel said it had killed Odeh's predecessor, underscoring the speed with which the group's military leadership was being targeted during the war. Hamas had not commented at the time of the supplied reporting.
According to AFP's reporting carried by Arab News, Israeli officials said Odeh was the new commander of the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades and that he had served as head of Hamas intelligence during the October 7 assault on southern Israel. The joint Israeli statement quoted by the report said Odeh had been one of the architects of that attack. A separate post by Defense Minister Israel Katz said the commander of Hamas's armed wing in Gaza had been eliminated and sent to "the depths of hell."
The Gaza war context remains the key to the announcement. Israel's campaign has repeatedly sought out senior Hamas political and military figures inside Gaza and elsewhere in the region. The supplied AFP report noted that Israel has previously claimed responsibility for the killings of Ismail Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif, all of whom held major leadership roles in Hamas. By placing Odeh in that sequence, the report framed the strike as part of a broader effort to dismantle the movement's command structure rather than as an isolated battlefield event.
The report also connected the strike to the aftermath of October 7. It said the Israeli tally of those killed in the assault stood at 1,221, according to official Israeli figures cited by AFP, while Gaza's health ministry said Israel's retaliation had killed at least 72,803 people. The United Nations considers those Gaza figures reliable. Those numbers are politically and legally contested, but they are central to understanding the scale of the war in which Israel says the killing took place.
A separate report from Ynet said Odeh had been named to replace slain commander Izz al-Din al-Haddad and that Israel believed he did not survive the strike. That additional source strengthens the identification of the target but does not substantially change the larger picture: Israel was announcing another strike on Hamas leadership and presenting it as a direct response to the October 7 attacks.
The Gaza civil defense agency said a woman was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Rimal neighborhood, a reminder that these leadership strikes often occur in dense civilian areas. Even without Hamas comment, the significance of the event is clear. Israel is continuing to hit what it describes as the chain of command behind October 7, while Hamas is under pressure to replace leaders faster than Israel can target them. The reported killing of Mohammed Odeh showed that the leadership contest inside the war was still moving, even if the strategic outcome remained unresolved.
