Israel says army it killed Hamas commander Raed Saed, in Gaza City strike

The Israeli military said it killed senior Hamas commander Raed Saed, in a strike on a car in Gaza City on Saturday in coordination with the Shin Bet intelligence service, Israeli officials confirmed.

The attack killed four people and wounded at least 25 others, according to Gaza health authorities, as the vehicle was driving along the Al-Rashid coastal road, in the Hamas-controlled part of Gaza.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly ordered the attack, his office said, alongside Israel Katz, the country's Defence Minister.

The Israeli attack on the vehicle killing Saed is the highest-profile assassination of a senior Hamas figure since a ceasefire deal came into effect in October, and their biggest violation of the truce to date.

Hamas has condemned the attack, calling it a "blatant violation" of the US-brokered ceasefire. 

"This crime reaffirms that the Israeli occupation is deliberately seeking to undermine and sabotage the ceasefire agreement through its escalating and continuous violations," the group said on Telegram.

An Israeli defence official said Saed had been targeted in the attack, describing him as the head of Hamas' weapons manufacturing force.

Hamas sources have also described him as the second-in-command of the group's armed wing, after Izz eldeen Al-Hadad.

Saed used to head Hamas's Gaza City battalion, one of the group's largest and best-equipped, those sources said.

Israel's military onslaught on the Gaza Strip has killed over 70,700 Palestinians, health officials say, in acts labelled a genocide by the UN, experts, world leaders, and NGOs.

A US-brokered ceasefire came into effect on 10 October, enabling hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to return to Gaza City, though much of the city, like the enclave, remains in ruins.

But violence has not completely halted. Israel has violated the ceasefire almost daily, killing at least 386 people in strikes in Gaza since the truce. Over 1,000 people have also been injured over the two-month period.