The Palestinian resistance group Hamas has confirmed the assassination of Raed Saad, the second-in-command of its armed wing, the Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, in a targeted Israeli airstrike which killed three others in Gaza City on Saturday.
The strike, part of Israel’s ongoing campaign of extrajudicial assassinations in the besieged Gaza Strip, hit a civilian vehicle on Al-Rasheed Street near the coast. Eyewitnesses told Al Manassa that the car was driving through a densely populated area when an Israeli drone launched a missile without warning, dismembering the victims in a gruesome explosion.
In a video message released on the 38th anniversary of Hamas’s founding, senior Gaza leader Khalil Al-Hayya mourned Saad’s killing and laid out the group’s immediate priorities: a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Strip, the reconstruction of medical and civil infrastructure, unhindered humanitarian access, and the reopening of the Rafah border crossing in both directions.
Al-Hayya reaffirmed Hamas’s rejection of any foreign trusteeship or occupation forces within Gaza, stating that any international mission must be limited to monitoring the ceasefire and separating forces at the Gaza boundary with 1948-occupied Palestinian territories.
The Israeli military dubbed the operation “Quick Meal,” with its media describing Saad as the most senior Hamas commander still alive following the killings of Mohammad Deif and Yahya Sinwar earlier in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
Born in 1972 in Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza, Raed Hussein Saad joined Hamas in the early years of the First Intifada and was detained repeatedly by Israeli forces. He survived several assassination attempts and was appointed commander of northern Gaza operations in 2007, later leading the group’s naval forces.
Between 2012 and 2021, Saad served in Hamas top military council alongside Deif and Sinwar. According to media reports, he helped plan the October 7, 2023, Al-Aqsa Flood operation, a coordinated offensive targeting Israeli military installations and settlements.
In May 2024, Israeli warplanes bombed Saad’s home in Al-Shati camp. After failing to eliminate him, the Israeli military placed a bounty of $800,000 on his head for information leading to his capture or death.
Assassinations continue
Just hours after Saad’s killing, Ahmad Zamzam, a senior officer in the Hamas-run internal security forces, was gunned down in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza. The Interior Ministry stated that one suspect was arrested and confessed that the operation was carried out under the direction of Israeli intelligence.
A security source, speaking to Al Manassa on condition of anonymity, said multiple collaborators used electric bikes and silenced pistols, unloading 24 rounds into Zamzam’s car as he left his home. One of the assailants was apprehended while attempting to flee south.
Despite a ceasefire agreement signed in Sharm El-Sheikh on Oct. 10, Israeli airstrikes continue nearly daily, targeting homes and displacement camps across the Strip. Israel has refused to advance to phase two of the agreement—which calls for further withdrawal and reconstruction—unless Hamas hands over the last Israeli prisoner of war's body, who resistance fighters say may still be trapped beneath rubble.
