Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday (May 17, 2026) that Israel had almost completed a key goal of the war in Gaza — eliminating all those responsible for orchestrating the October 7 attack.

His remarks followed the Israeli military’s announcement that Ezzedine Al-Haddad, commander of Hamas’s armed wing, had been killed in an airstrike in Gaza on Friday (May 15, 2026).

In the aftermath of the October 7 assault, Mr. Netanyahu pledged to target and eliminate the masterminds behind the attacks, which, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures, resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people.

“I promised that every single architect of the massacre and the hostage-taking would be eliminated down to the last one, and we are very close to completing this mission,” Mr. Netanyahu said during the weekly cabinet meeting, describing Haddad as a “despicable terrorist”.

Since Hamas’s cross-border assault, the Israeli military and intelligence services have waged a campaign targeting the group’s senior political leaders and militant commanders in Gaza and across the region.

During the war triggered by the Hamas attacks, Israel has claimed responsibility for assassinating several Hamas leaders, including the group’s former political chief Ismail Haniyeh.

Israeli soldiers also killed Yahya Sinwar, who was widely regarded as a key mastermind behind the October 7 attack.

Mohammed Deif, the longtime commander of Hamas’s armed wing and considered an architect of the attack, was also killed during the war.

Israeli strikes have also targeted Hamas operatives in Lebanon, as well as senior Iran-backed Hezbollah commanders allied with the group, including former Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.

Mr. Netanyahu, meanwhile, reiterated on Sunday that Israeli forces currently control 60% of Gaza’s territory.

The statement suggests that the military has continued to expand its operational presence in Gaza, following recent media reports that Israeli troops had advanced toward a newly-designated “Orange Line”.

Under the terms of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in effect since October 10, Israeli forces were to withdraw to a so-called “Yellow Line” in Gaza, leaving them in control of more than 50% of the Palestinian territory.

“We have Hamas in our grip. We know exactly what our mission is, and our mission is: To ensure that Gaza will never again pose a threat to Israel,” Mr. Netanyahu said.

Israel’s military campaign against Hamas since the October 2023 attacks has killed at least 72,763 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to the territory’s health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority.

Despite an October ceasefire, Gaza remains gripped by daily violence as Israeli strikes continue, with both the military and Hamas accusing one another of violating the truce.

At least 871 Palestinians have been killed since the truce began, according to the territory’s Health Ministry.

The United Nations considers these figures reliable.

Over the same period, the Israeli military said five soldiers have been killed in Gaza.

Israel ​said ‌on Friday (May 15, 2026) it had ​carried ⁠out a strike in Gaza ‌targeting Izz ‌al-Din al-Haddad, the ‌most ⁠senior ⁠Hamas military leader in the ​Gaza ‌Strip.

Israel believes he is one of ‌the masterminds ​of the October 7, ⁠2023, Hamas-led attacks on ‌southern Israel and has identified him as one of its ‌most wanted.

There ​was no immediate comment ⁠from Hamas.

This is a developing story. Kindly visit later for more updates.

A former close aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that immediately following the October 2023 Hamas attack that triggered Israel’s two-year war in Gaza, the Israeli leader instructed him to figure out how the premier could evade responsibility for the security breach.

Former Netanyahu spokesperson Eli Feldstein, who faces trial for allegedly leaking classified information to the press, made the explosive accusation during an extensive interview with Israel’s Kan news channel Monday (December 22, 2025) night.

Critics have repeatedly accused Mr. Netanyahu of refusing to accept blame for the deadliest attack in Israel’s history. But little is known about Mr. Netanyahu’s behaviour in the days immediately following the attack, while the premier has consistently resisted an independent state inquiry.

Speaking to Kan, Mr. Feldstein said, “the first task” he received from Netanyahu after October 7, 2023, was to stifle calls for accountability.

“He asked me, ‘What are they talking about in the news? Are they still talking about responsibility?’” Mr. Feldstein said. “He wanted me to think of something that could be said that would offset the media storm surrounding the question of whether the Prime Minister had taken responsibility or not.”

He added that Mr. Netanyahu looked “panicked” when he made the request. Mr. Feldstein said he was later told by people in Mr. Netanyahu’s close circle to omit the word “responsibility” from all statements.

On Ocober. 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in southern Israel and took 251 hostages back to Gaza. Israel then launched a devastating war in Gaza that has killed nearly 71,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants but says around half the deaths were women and children.

Mr. Netanyahu’s office called the interview a “long series of mendacious and recycled allegations made by a man with clear personal interests who is trying to deflect responsibility from himself,” Hebrew media reported.

Mr. Feldstein’s statements come after his indictment in a case where he is accused of leaking classified military information to a German tabloid to improve public perception of the prime minister following the killing of six hostages in Gaza in August of last year.

Mr. Feldstein is also a suspect in the “Qatargate” scandal, one of two close aides to Netanyahu accused of accepting money from Qatar while also working for the Prime Minister.