A crimson stain next to a charred tangle of steel and aluminum. That’s all that’s left of Raed Saad. (Actually, his body — or parts of it — was taken to a hospital in Gaza City, but you get the point.)
Saad wasn’t the last Mohican, so to speak, but he was among them. By the time Israel targeted Hamas’s political leadership in Doha in September, the list of high-value military targets in Gaza had dwindled to just two: Izz al-Din al-Haddad and Saad.
Although the IDF can always find someone ostensibly worth killing, the death of Yahya Sinwar’s brother Mohammad in May left the al-Qassam Brigades with just two living commanders possessed of a claim on any kind of stature. With Saad’s death, that list’s down to one.
Not that it matters — the specifics of his demise being more or less as you’d expect for a Hamas commander — but Saad was driving along a muddy coastal road west of Gaza City when an Israeli drone (or warplanes) closed his curtain.
Pictures from the grizzly scene depicted curious locals picking through a grey sedan’s blackened frame like buzzards at the bones of cattle carcass.
Three others were reportedly killed in the strike, which Hamas called a “blatant violation” of the Trump-brokered ceasefire that’s largely held despite predictable implementation challenges and constant finger-pointing.
The IDF used precisely the same language as Hamas, accusing Saad of being in “blatant violation” of the ceasefire, working as he allegedly was to rebuild Hamas’s military capabilities and “weapons manufacturing.”
I don’t think we need the “allegedly” there. If you’re Raed Saad, what else would you be doing if not trying to reconstitute? When you dedicate your life to an outfit like the al-Qassam Brigades, that’s a firm decision. There’s no exit ramp. And if you’re an enemy of the Israeli state, the IDF or Mossad will track you down and kill you eventually.
Needless to say, if Israel finds al-Haddad (and they will) he’s a dead man too. He’s not exactly hard to spot despite a ridiculous attempt to disguise himself by dying his hair and turning his beard into a goatee.
In the wake of Saturday’s strike on Saad, the Israeli military reminded the world it’s still entitled to kill targets “actively engaged in terrorism.” This was (at least) the second time the IDF’s tried to kill Saad. Benjamin Netanyahu said he personally ordered the strike and suggested it was a retaliatory measure taken in response to the wounding of two Israeli soldiers by an IED.
Both sides are at pains to convince the world they’re committed to the ceasefire, but no one really believes Hamas can be disarmed. And everyone understands a prolonged power vacuum will only precipitate more violence. That, in turn, means it’s unlikely Israel will be able to withdraw its forces entirely, lest the strip should descend into an even more chaotic state than it’s in currently. Assuming that’s possible.
