Overview
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said they authorized the operation in response to an explosive device that injured two soldiers in Gaza’s designated Yellow Zone.
- The Israel Defense Forces released video of the strike and described Saad as head of Hamas’s weapons production and a key planner of the October 7, 2023 attacks.
- Gaza health and civil defense officials reported five people killed and roughly 25 wounded in the Gaza City strike on a vehicle.
- Local reports said the vehicle was hit along Gaza’s coastal Rashid Road near Tel al-Hawa and the Nabulsi roundabout, with casualties taken to Al-Shifa Hospital.
- Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya publicly confirmed Saad’s death and called the strike a ceasefire violation, as analysts and outlets cast it as the most high-profile killing since the October truce.