The ‘Ghost of al-Qassam’ Becomes Hamas’s Third Leader in Seven Months

After Israel killed his two predecessors, Ezzedin al-Haddad takes over a battered militant group that is depleted of veterans but still deadly

By Summer Said, Dov Lieber and Anat Peled

After more than 600 days of war and years of being steered by the brothers Yahya and Mo-hammed Sinwar, Hamas has a new leader in the Gaza Strip.

The U.S.-designated terror-is group has handed control of its Gaza operations to Ezzedin al-Haddad, an experienced fighter who helped plan the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, recruits the organization's fighters and oversees the captivity of Israeli hostages, keeping photos of many on his phone, say Arab and Israeli of ficials and a former hostage.

Haddad - the group's third Gaza boss in seven months takes over an operation sharply diminished by war with a vastly superior Israeli force. He didn't have much competition for the post. Of the dozen and a half senior militants on Hamas's military council before the war, only a handful are thought to be alive.

Israel killed his predecessor, Mohammed Sinwar, in a mid-May strike. The military says it has killed thousands of Hamas fighters and destroyed much of the group's arsenal.

Still, Hamas's ability to quickly replace new com-mander shows its durability and the challenges in achieving Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's stated goal of wiping it out.

While its authority has been eroded in areas, Hamas remains the enclave's dominant armed force.

"They are much weaker than 20 months ago, but we should be accurate," said Michael Milshtein, a former head of Palestinian affairs for Israeli military intelligence. "They are still the dominant player in Gaza."

The 55-year-old Haddad is known as the Ghost of al-Qassam for his low profile. He has survived several Israeli assassination attempts, but both of his sons were killed in the war.

He has a $750,000 Israeli bounty on his head. After Is rael officially announced the death of Mohammed Sinwar in May, Defense Minister Israel Katz said Haddad and Hamas leader abroad Khalil al-Hayya were next on the target list.

According to the Arab and Israeli officials, Haddad worked his way up through the group's Al-Qassam Brigades.

A day before the Oct. 7 at tacks, Haddad held a secret meeting with Hamas commanders and handed them a document with instructions for the coming operation. When Yahya was killed in October, Haddad took control of Hamas's forces in northern Gaza, while Mohammed Sinwar ran the south. One now-released Israeli hostage met Haddad five times while in captivity. The first time, in March 2024, Haddad asked "ma schlom-chem"- "how are you" in Hebrew, which he insisted on using for the conversation. Haddad said he was responsible for all the hostages in Gaza. He pulled out a smart phone and flipped through photos of different captives.

When they met later, in another home in January, Haddad seemed different, the former hostage said. His face was covered this time, and his demeanor more negative. He complained about what he alleged were Israeli war crimes. The former captive later learned one of Haddad's sons had just been killed by Israel.

Haddad has attracted thousands of new fighters. The recruits have only received minimal training, said Arab intelligence officials. The officials estimate Hamas could have 25,000 people in its military wing and thousands more with other Gaza militant groups.

Arab intelligence officials said the group is so short on cash that it can't pay most of its fighters. Israel's blockade of humanitarian goods cut off an important source of funds for Hamas, which would seize and sell some of the items or use the deliveries to smuggle in contraband, Arab and Israeli officials said.

The blockade also caused widespread hunger and a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Israel has since rolled out a new distribution plan aimed at cutting out Hamas, but it has been criticized as dangerous, and many Palestinians have been killed trying to reach the sites. Israeli officials say Hamas made hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and goods in the first year of the war by reselling or taxing aid or contraband and demanding protection payments. The group gave up to 25% of the aid under its control to members of its military wing until roughly April 2024, according to one Hamas document found by the Israeli military inside Gaza.

Later, for a reason Hamas didn't explain, the group lowered the total amount given to its military wing to 7%, with another 8% going to political and administrative parts of the organization, according to the document.

Arab intelligence officials and an ex-senior Israeli intelligence official said the documents appear to be genuine. A Hamas official didn't respond to a request to comment. Aid groups and the United Nations say Israel has inflated the significance of Hamas's diversion of aid.

Haddad, however, retains the capacity to fight. Israel's military concedes that 75% of Hamas's underground tunnels are intact, and that the group is turning unexploded Israeli ordnance into bombs. Recently, three Israeli soldiers were killed by a bomb as their Humvee traveled in an area thought to be fully under their control.

"They don't need tens of thousands of weapons," said Miri Eisin, a former deputy head of the Israeli military's combat-intelligence corps. "They just need to kill a soldier a day."

Haddad believes the hostages shouldn't all be released without an Israeli withdrawal and end to the war.

The former captive recalled that in one of their meetings, Haddad expressed concern about how the hostage would characterize the treatment in captivity. The ex-hostage told him some captors had been better than others.

"This is life," Haddad responded, the former hostage recalled. "There are good people, and there are bad people."