Revision History

Israel killed Mohammed Odeh, the newly appointed head of Hamas's Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, in an airstrike on Gaza City on May 26, 2026 — just 11 days after he assumed command following the assassination of his predecessor. The killing marks at least the fourth senior Qassam Brigades commander eliminated since October 7, 2023, but Hamas's ability to stage a mass public funeral the next day raises questions about whether the decapitation strategy is degrading the organization's operational capacity or simply cycling through replacements.