Israeli forces killed Mohammed Odeh, the newly appointed head of Hamas’s armed wing, in an airstrike targeting a building in Gaza City on Wednesday, according to statements from Israel’s defense minister and the Israel Defense Forces. The strike came as Israel expanded its military operations across the Gaza Strip and intensified bombardment of southern Lebanon, killing at least 31 people in a single day of strikes.
Odeh, who was named military chief after his predecessor was killed in an earlier Israeli strike, died alongside several aides when the IDF hit a multi-story structure it said was serving as a command hub for the group’s operational planning. Defense Minister Israel Katz said on social media that the strike “removed a significant threat” and that Israel would continue to target Hamas leadership wherever they operate.
The killing deepens the vacuum at the top of Hamas’s military apparatus, which has lost at least three successive commanders in the past eight months. Israeli officials say the repeated leadership turnover has severely disrupted the group’s command and control in northern Gaza, though resistance fighters have continued to launch attacks against Israeli positions.
Simultaneously, Israel launched more than 120 airstrikes across southern and eastern Lebanon on Tuesday — one of the heaviest single-day bombing campaigns in weeks, according to Lebanese security sources. The strikes killed 31 people and wounded at least 40 others, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. Israel’s ground forces, operating under expanded orders from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet, pushed deeper into Lebanese territory, prompting mass displacement as civilians fled southern towns under forced evacuation orders.
The escalation on both fronts threatens to unravel a ceasefire agreement brokered in mid-April between Israel and Hezbollah, which had been holding — barely — for six weeks. Iran’s foreign ministry said it had evidence the United States had violated the terms of a separate truce in place between Washington and Tehran, warning that Tehran reserved the right to respond. The Pentagon denied any truce violation.
Humanitarian agencies warned that the combined offensive was overwhelming medical facilities already operating near capacity. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said at least 12 health centers in Gaza had been hit or forced to close in the past 72 hours, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without access to emergency care. No international ceasefire mediation effort has so far produced a breakthrough.