TEHRAN – Hamas has announced the martyrdom of its senior commander Raed Saad, in an Israeli strike on Gaza on Saturday. The attack near Gaza City also wounded at least 25 civilians. This marks the most prominent assassination of a resistance leader since the October ceasefire deal, underscoring Israel’s ongoing violations.

In a video statement on Sunday, Hamas’s Gaza chief Khalil al Hayya condemned Israel’s aggression and declared: “In the wake of Israel’s continued violations, including the latest assassination of a Hamas commander just yesterday, we call on the mediators and especially the U.S. administration and President Donald Trump — the supposed guarantor of the agreement — to force the occupation to respect the ceasefire deal and implement it.”

Since the truce began in October, Gaza authorities report that Israel has carried out nearly 800 attacks, killing at least 386 Palestinians. Overall, more than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since October 2023.

Israel has also blocked humanitarian aid from freely entering Gaza, leaving hundreds of thousands of displaced people to suffer amid Storm Byron, which flooded 27,000 tent shelters.

A week ago, the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a resolution demanding that Israel open unrestricted humanitarian access, halt attacks on UN facilities, and comply with international law as an occupying power. Yet Washington has failed to hold Israel accountable, allowing the occupation to continue its daily assaults on Gaza.

This latest assassination highlights the collapse of the ceasefire framework and raises serious questions about the credibility of U.S. mediation, which Hamas and its supporters argue has shielded Israel while Gaza endures relentless bombardment and humanitarian catastrophe.