IDF says it killed one of the last remaining Hamas politburo members still in Gaza
Military announces that Izz al-Din Kassab, who served as terror group’s head of national relations, was killed alongside his assistant in Khan Younis area
Top Hamas official Izz al-Din Kassab was killed Friday in an airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip, the IDF and Shin Bet announced.
Kasab was one of the last remaining members of Hamas’s political bureau, where he served as head of national relations.
According to the military, he was responsible for coordination between Hamas and the other terror groups in Gaza.
“Kassab was a significant source of power and, by virtue of his role, was responsible for the organization’s strategic and military relations with other factions in the Gaza Strip. He held the authority to direct the execution of terror attacks against the State of Israel,” the IDF said in a statement.
According to the IDF, Kassab’s assistant, Ayman Ayesh, was also killed in the strike.
The military released footage of the strike, which took place in the Khan Younis area.
Meanwhile, the Kan public broadcaster said Mossad chief David Barnea told the families of hostages in Gaza during a meeting Friday that reports that Hamas rejected a recent Egyptian proposal for a 12-day ceasefire are incorrect and that the terror group is expected to submit its formal response to the offer at the beginning of next week.
The Egyptian proposal would begin with an initial 48-hour ceasefire during which Hamas would prepare for the release of four Israeli hostages over the next 10 days, officials involved told The Times of Israel.
The four hostages would fall under the so-called humanitarian category, meaning they would be either women, the elderly, or the sick.
In exchange, Israel would release roughly 100 Palestinian security prisoners, the officials said.
During the 12-day deal, Israel and Hamas would hold talks about a more long-lasting ceasefire.
A source present at the meeting with the hostage families told Kan that Barnea understood that Israel has failed for over a year in trying to bring back their loved ones and that talks need to be handled differently in order to reach a deal.
Channel 12 news on Friday evening quoted a senior Hamas source who said the terror group was open to new proposals for a deal but reiterated it would not retreat from its demand for an end to the war.
The ongoing conflict in Gaza erupted was triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages, many amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.
Vowing to destroy Hamas and free the hostages, the IDF launched a wide-scale campaign in the Strip, which the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says has left more than 42,000 people dead or presumed dead. This toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it had killed some 17,000 combatants in battle as of August and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
It is believed that 97 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 37 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
