Hamas’ chief negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya said on Sunday (December 14, 2025) that a targeted assassination by Israel on Saturday (December 13, 2025) of one of the group’s senior commanders threatens the “viability of the truce” in the enclave.

In a televised address, Hayya, who is also the exiled Gaza Hamas chief, confirmed the killing of the group’s senior commander Raed Saed in an Israeli strike a day earlier.

It was the highest-profile assassination of a senior Hamas figure since a U.S.-backed Gaza ceasefire deal came into effect in October.

“The continued Israeli violations to the ceasefire agreement… and latest assassinations that targeted Saed and others threaten the viability of the agreement,” he said in an address. “We call on mediators, and especially the main guarantor, the U.S. administration and President Donald Trump to work on obliging Israel to respect the ceasefire and commit to it.”

Hamas sources have described Saed as the second-in-command of the group’s armed wing, after Izz eldeen Al-Hadad. Israel says Saed was one of the key architects of the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war.

Hayya also spoke about the proposed U.N.-authorised International Stabilization Force (ISF).

“The role of the international forces should be limited to maintaining the ceasefire and separating the two sides along Gaza borders… without any role inside the strip or intervention in its domestic affairs,” he said.

Deployment of the force is a key part of the next phase of Trump’s Gaza peace plan. Under the first phase, a fragile ceasefire in the two-year-old war began on October 10 with Hamas releasing hostages and Israel has freeing detained Palestinians.

The U.S. Central Command will host a conference in Doha on December 16 with partner nations to plan the International Stabilization Force for Gaza, U.S. official stold Reuters.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz, on Thursday (November 6, 2025), said he instructed the army to turn the area at the border with Egypt into a closed military zone to combat weapons smuggling via drones.

“I instructed the IDF [military] to turn the area adjacent to the Israel–Egypt border into a closed military zone and to amend the rules of engagement accordingly in order to combat the drone threat that endangers the country’s security,” Mr. Katz said in a statement.

“Weapon smuggling via drones is part of the war in Gaza and is intended to arm our enemies, and all possible measures must be taken to stop it,” he added.

Israel and Egypt share a border that spans approximately 200 kilometres. On Sunday (November 2), the Israeli military said it identified a drone that “crossed from the west into Israeli territory in an attempt to smuggle weapons”. It said troops intercepted the drone, which was carrying eight guns.

On Tuesday (November 4), it said it thwarted another smuggling attempt after intercepting a drone carrying 10 pistols which had “crossed from the eastern border” into Israeli territory. Israel is bordered by Jordan to the east.

“Today we declare war on those involved in the smuggling — and anyone who breaches the forbidden area will be targeted,” Mr. Katz said on Thursday (November 6).

In a post on X, Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir praised Mr. Katz for taking the decision and for “recognising that the trafficking that takes place there serves terrorist objectives”.