Hamas Holds Odeh Funeral; Israel Continues Gaza Strikes Through Eid
Hamas confirmed on Wednesday that Israeli airstrikes killed its newly-appointed military wing leader Mohammed Odeh, with a funeral procession through Gaza City. Israeli warplanes carried out multiple attacks across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, killing at least 18 Palestinians including children and women. Since the October 10 ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 906 Palestinians and injured more than 2,747 others, according to Al Jazeera’s ceasefire-violation tracker. The October 7, 2023 attacks killed 1,200 Israelis; Gaza’s health ministry says Israel’s campaign has killed at least 72,800 Palestinians since.
Israel has acknowledged supporting groups opposed to Hamas during its war on Gaza; incursions by Israeli-backed armed gangs have escalated in recent weeks. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has separately told confidants Israel has “no manoeuvre to influence the president right now” on the Iran deal — an acknowledgment that Israel has been largely left out of the US-Iran talks despite the war beginning with joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran on 28 February. The Odeh succession from Ezz al-Din al-Haddad represents Hamas’s third military-wing chief change since the war began. Israel and Hamas remain deadlocked in indirect talks over implementing the second phase of the October ceasefire deal, which includes the group’s disarmament and Israeli army withdrawals.