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HAMAS has suffered another major blow to its military leadership after Israel killed senior commander Mohammad Odeh in an air strike on Gaza City, further weakening the group’s armed structure amid continuing ceasefire tensions and deadlocked negotiations over the future of Gaza.
Reuters, on Thursday, reported that dozens of Palestinians carried Odeh’s body through the streets of Gaza City on Wednesday in a funeral procession marked by grief, anger and renewed vows of resistance, just one day after the Israeli military confirmed his death in what it described as a targeted operation.
According to Israel, Odeh was killed on Tuesday night, barely a week after the death of his predecessor, Izz al-Din al-Haddad, who was also killed in an Israeli strike targeting an apartment building in Gaza.
The latest killing leaves few senior militant figures remaining within Hamas’ armed wing at a time when indirect negotiations involving the United States, Israel and Hamas remain stalled over proposals linked to President Donald Trump’s plan for post-war Gaza.
The Israeli military later announced additional strikes in northern Gaza targeting two Hamas militants, although their identities were not disclosed.
Health officials in Gaza said at least 10 people, including five children, were killed in a separate Israeli strike on a building in Gaza City on Wednesday evening, while 18 others were wounded.
Sources close to Hamas said local Gaza City commander Emad Esleem was among those killed in the attack.
The strike that killed Odeh also claimed the lives of his wife and son, according to family members.
Their bodies, wrapped in white burial shrouds, were carried alongside Odeh’s coffin through neighbourhoods devastated by nearly two years of Israeli bombardment and military operations.
At a mosque in Gaza City, relatives and mourners insisted that Israel’s campaign would not end Palestinian resistance.
“This journey will not stop and the struggle of the Palestinian people will continue on all levels,” said Abu Al-Abd Odeh, a relative of the slain commander.
Gaza health officials said the strike on Odeh’s residence killed at least three additional people and injured more than 20 others after destroying the upper floor of an apartment building in the Rimal district.
Rescue workers continued searching through rubble on Wednesday amid fears that more victims could still be trapped beneath the debris.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Odeh had headed Hamas’ intelligence division during the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel that triggered the Gaza war.
Netanyahu said Odeh had only recently assumed leadership of Hamas’ armed wing following the killing of Haddad on May 15.
Sources close to Hamas indicated Odeh may have been the last surviving member of the organisation’s senior military leadership council inside Gaza.
Israeli security analysts described the operation as part of a broader strategy aimed at systematically dismantling Hamas’ command structure.
“This is part of the strategy of weakening Hamas, of undermining their cohesion as an organisation,” said Michael Kobi of the Institute for National Security Studies.
“When you take down experienced people, then they have a problem to run the organisation effectively.”
Since the outbreak of the war, Israel has killed numerous senior Hamas political and military leaders, while Israeli officials including Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz have repeatedly vowed to eliminate all individuals allegedly linked to the October 2023 attacks.
Following Odeh’s death, Katz declared that Hamas would no longer retain civilian or military authority in Gaza and reiterated plans involving what he described as “voluntary migration” from the enclave.
Palestinians have strongly rejected such proposals, viewing them as echoes of the 1948 Nakba, during which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced during the creation of Israel.
According to Gaza health authorities, approximately 900 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes since the October ceasefire took effect, although the figures do not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
The Israeli military says four Israeli soldiers have been killed by militants during the same period.
Meanwhile, negotiations over the second phase of the ceasefire agreement remain deadlocked, with disagreements centring on Hamas’ disarmament and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
Under the current truce arrangement reached in October, Israel remains in control of more than half of Gaza, while Hamas continues to administer a narrow stretch of coastal territory. - May 28, 2026
