Seven killed in Gaza on Nakba Day as Israel says it targets Hamas member

At least seven Palestinians have been killed and dozens injured in two Israeli air strikes on a residential building and a civilian vehicle in Gaza City, according to medical sources.

The deaths on Friday come as Israel said it carried out a strike on Izz al-Din al-Haddad, the head of the armed wing of Hamas in Gaza.

In a joint statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz said they targeted “one of the architects” of the October 7 attacks. Their statement did not say whether Haddad was killed.

Hamas has not commented, and Al Jazeera has not independently confirmed Israel’s claim.

Medical sources told the Anadolu news agency that three of the Palestinian victims were killed in a strike on a civilian vehicle, and four others died in an attack on a building in the Rimal neighbourhood in western Gaza City.

Three women and a child were among the dead, sources told Al Jazeera. Anadolu said at least 45 others were injured, several reportedly in critical condition.

“According to witnesses on the ground the attack involved at least four missiles,” said Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Gaza, Ibrahim Al Khalili. He added that a “massive fire” engulfed the residential building that was struck.

There was “panic” at the scene as Palestinians were forced to flee, said Al Khalili.

This latest Israeli attack comes on the 78th anniversary of the Nakba – a day of remembrance for the estimated 750,000 Palestinians who were expelled from their homes during the 1948 war due to the creation of Israel.

Gathering around a residential apartment as a fire burns after Israeli shelling, according to the Ministry of Health, in Gaza City, May 15, 2026. [Ebrahim Hajjaj/Reuters]

Al Khalili explained that the attack site west of Gaza City is “overcrowded” because many people moved from east of Gaza City in search of refuge from countless Israeli military operations.

Mahmoud Basel, Gaza’s civil defence spokesman, said hundreds of people were living inside the residential building that was targeted.

“The missile was fired ⁠⁠without any pre-warning or notification. We are talking about a number of [dead]. We are talking about a big number of wounded, among them families,” Basel told the Reuters news agency.

Netanyahu and Katz’s statement said they targeted Haddad because he was “responsible for the murder, abduction, and injury of thousands of Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers”.

The statement also accused Haddad of being an obstacle to Trump’s Gaza peace deal as he refused to “disarm Hamas of its weapons and demilitarise the Gaza Strip”.

Despite Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, fighting has persisted in the enclave. Since the “ceasefire” was established last October, close to 850 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

Al Khalili said many Palestinians thought the ceasefire would bring “relief”, but it continues to bring nothing but “tragedy”.