The Israeli military (IDF) announce it targeted a vehicle in Gaza City on Saturday that was carrying Raed Saad, a senior Hamas commander, which Israel has identified one of the planners of the Oct. 7, 2023 terror attacks.

An IDF spokesperson later announced on social media that Saad had been killed, while Palestinian sources did not immediately confirm or deny, but only said the strike killed four people.

Saad reporteldy headed Hamas' weapons production division, while Hamas itself has verified that he's the deputy leader of the group's armed wing.

The Israeli military announced via a social media post: "Every place where we identify that Hamas is trying to regroup, we act. Earlier today, the IDF eliminated Raad Saad, whose elimination constitutes a blow to Hamas's attempts at regrouping and strengthening. We will not allow our enemies to regroup and rebuild their strength. We will continue to be committed to continuing the ceasefire agreement."

But Hamas of course sees this as another violation of the ceasefire terms. Since the ceasefire took effect, dozens of Palestinians have been killed.

Often in these incidents the IDF says its forces were provoked, and that it retains to right to respond, and to go after 'terrorists'. There's been a similar rationale offered in this case of the assassination of Saad:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz, in a joint statement, said that Saad was killed in response to the injury of two troops by an explosive in southern Gaza several hours prior.

In its own statement, the IDF said that in recent weeks, "repeated attempts by the Hamas terror organization to carry out terrorist attacks were identified, including the use of explosive devices against IDF troops, actions that constitute a blatant violation of the agreement, as occurred this morning."

Axios is reporting that Israel did not give prior notice to Washington ahead of the strike, but the Trump admin is unlikely to object to such a high level terror target being taken out.

The IDF subsequently published footage of the strike, with an Israeli source confirming that "Saad had long been a target for elimination."