Hamas has confirmed the death of Izz al-Din al-Haddad, the head of the Palestinian group's armed forces in the Gaza Strip, in an Israeli attack one day earlier.
In a statement on Saturday, Hamas condemned the "treacherous and cowardly" assassination of al-Haddad, the leader of the Qassam Brigades.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Friday that Israeli forces had targeted and eliminated al-Haddad, calling him "one of the architects" of the October 7, 2023 attack.
Hamas said al-Haddad was killed along with his wife, daughter, and other Palestinian civilians on Friday evening.
The Israeli airstrikes targeted the Remal neighborhood west of Gaza City. Medical sources said three Palestinians were killed in an attack on a civilian vehicle, and four others died in an attack on a building.
Sources told Al Jazeera that three women and a baby were among the dead. Dozens of others were wounded.
Al Jazeera's Ibrahim Al Khalili, reporting from Gaza on the strike that killed al-Haddad, said the attacks caused "panic" at the scene as dozens of Palestinians were forced to flee from the "huge fire" engulfing the residential building.
Hamas said the killing of al-Haddad marks Israel's latest violation of the Gaza "ceasefire" agreement, as well as "the ongoing aggression against innocent civilians" in the territory.
The group said such attacks reaffirm Israel's "criminal and fascist nature." Their statement stressed: "It shows Israel's contempt for all international laws and conventions, and its failed attempts to impose political and military realities that it could not achieve through force."
The Mujahideen Palestine Movement and its military wing, the Mujahideen Brigades, also mourned al-Haddad. Their joint statement said: "We praise his great sacrifices and long struggle, and we recall his rich history of resistance against the Zionist enemy, fighting against it until he was martyred."
The statement added that the "cowardly assassination" will not "weaken the resolve" of the resistance group and "it will not be able to resolve the conflict, despite the war machine and destruction it has unleashed over the past two and a half years."
In December last year, Israel eliminated senior Hamas commander Raed Saad, then al-Haddad's deputy, in an attack that wounded at least 25 people.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, since the "ceasefire" began in October last year, the death toll from Israeli attacks has reached 870 and the number of wounded has risen to 2,543. In the past 24 hours, hospitals across Gaza have received 13 bodies and 57 wounded patients, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
