From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, January 22, 2025
Head of Hamas Beit Hanoun battalion appears to be alive after IDF said he was killed
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleEmanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
The commander of Hamas’s Beit Hanoun battalion, Hussein Fayyad, who the IDF says was eliminated in May, appears to be alive.
Footage shared by Palestinian media shows a man identified as Fayyad speaking today at a funeral.
On May 24, the IDF said Fayyad was killed in a tunnel in a joint operation carried out by the 98th Division and special forces of the Air Force and elite Yahalom Combat Engineering unit.
It would not be the first time that the IDF has announced the death of a Hamas commander and later backtracked after determining that its intelligence at the time was not accurate.
The military has not yet commented on the reports that Fayyad is alive.
ظهور أسطوري للقائد ذو الأرواح السبع، حسين فياض (أبو حمزة)، قائد كتيبة بيت حانون، متحدثاً عن مفهوم النصر في الحرب.
جدير بالذكر أن المتحدث باسم جيش العدو دانيال هاغاري أعلن عن اغتياله في 23 مايو 2024، إثر اشتباك معه وجهاً لوجه في نفق في جباليا. pic.twitter.com/WMO6q390n4
— Saeed Ziad | سعيد زياد (@saeedziad) January 22, 2025
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