Izz ad-Din al-Haddad, known by his aliases "Abu Suhaib” and “the Ghost of the al-Qassam Brigades,” is one of the most prominent military commanders within Hamas’ armed wing. He currently serves as the commander of the Gaza Brigade and is a member of the group’s inner military council. With the reported possibility of Mohammed Sinwar being eliminated, Haddad is now seen as the likely successor.
Haddad began his path in the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades as a company commander, then advanced to command a battalion. He was eventually appointed commander of the Gaza Brigade after the assassination of his predecessor, Bassem Issa, in 2021.
Over the years, he has commanded at least six battalions, in addition to a special forces unit. In June 2024, it was reported that he had been appointed overall commander of northern Gaza. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, following the reported killing of Yahya Sinwar, Haddad oversaw two regional commands and 14 Hamas battalions—effectively “sharing” control of the Gaza Strip with Mohammed Sinwar.
On October 6, 2023, one day before the massacre in Israeli communities near the Gaza border, Haddad held a secret meeting with the commanders under his authority and handed them a document instructing them to “carry out the operation.” One of the main objectives he outlined was the mass abduction of Israeli soldiers in the opening moments of the assault, to be taken into Gaza. He also emphasized the importance of live documentation of the attack and the takeover of Israeli border communities.
Following the reported assassination of Yahya Sinwar, Haddad gave an interview to Al Jazeera’s program “More Hidden Than Revealed,” in which he claimed that Hamas launched the October 7 assault after allegedly uncovering information from Unit 8200 servers. According to him, Hamas intelligence breached an Israeli server and discovered a document showing that the IDF was planning a large-scale war in Gaza even before the massacre.
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Haddad has survived multiple Israeli assassination attempts over the years, including airstrikes targeting his home in 2008, 2012, 2021, and 2023. In November 2023, Israel offered a $750,000 reward for information leading to his capture or killing. His eldest son, Suhaib, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on January 17 of this year.
Haddad also held a senior role in Hamas’ internal security unit known as “al-Majd,” an organization founded by Yahya Sinwar and tasked with pursuing suspected collaborators with Israel. Haddad and Sinwar were known to have a close relationship, largely based on Haddad’s integration into Hamas’s military wing. The two are believed to have closely cooperated on internal security matters and counterintelligence operations.
While Haddad is viewed as the leading candidate to replace Mohammed Sinwar, one other senior commander from the October 7 war was a possible candidate: Muhammad Shabana, commander of the Rafah Brigade. Shabana also survived multiple Israeli assassination attempts, including during the IDF’s ground operations in Rafah, but is believed to have been in the tunnel during the strike that killed Mohammed Sinwar.
Shabana assumed his position during Operation Protective Edge in 2014, after the killing of three top Hamas military commanders. He has commanded four battalions, including Hamas’ elite Nukhba unit, which spearheaded the October 7 massacre.
Throughout the war, Shabana has survived several assassination attempts and lost three of his sons. Following Yahya Sinwar’s reported killing, rumors circulated that Shabana had also been eliminated, though no confirmation was provided by either Israeli or Palestinian sources.