DayofPal—The Israeli army announced on Saturday that it had killed Raed Saad, a senior leader in the Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, in an airstrike that targeted a car on Al-Rashid Street west of Gaza City.
According to Palestinian sources, the strike killed at least five Palestinians and wounded around 20 others.
In an official statement, the Israeli army described Saad as the “second-in-command” of the Qassam Brigades, saying he was responsible for weapons production and for rebuilding Hamas’s military capabilities in the Gaza Strip.
Saad, born in 1972, was one of the founders of Hamas’s military wing and held a number of senior leadership roles over the years. He had reportedly survived multiple assassination attempts during the course of the war.
Before Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza, he was considered the fourth most senior figure in the Qassam Brigades, after Mohammed Deif and Marwan Issa, both assassinated by Israel, and after Izz Al-Din Al-Haddad, whom Israeli security officials claim currently leads Hamas’s military wing.
Following the assassination of several members of Hamas’s military council, Saad rose to become the second-ranking commander within the Qassam Brigades.
He previously served for years as commander of the Gaza Brigade, one of the largest formations within the Qassam Brigades, from the period following Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 until 2021.
After the May 2021 war, known to Palestinians as the “Sword of Jerusalem” and to Israel as “Guardian of the Walls,” Saad assumed a new role as head of the manufacturing division within Hamas’s military wing.
In that capacity, he was responsible for developing and producing weapons, including rockets, anti-armor munitions, and the tunnel network.
Saad was briefly detained by Israel in 1990. In the early 2010s, he helped establish Hamas’s naval force in Gaza and later commanded it. Following the 2014 war, he joined Hamas’s General Staff and became a member of the movement’s small military council.
Saad worked to restore Hamas’s weapons-production capabilities during the war and was responsible for attacks that killed Israeli soldiers through explosive devices manufactured by his unit.
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