Hamas chief negotiator says Israel’s killing of senior commander threatens ceasefire

By Menna AlaaElDin and Muhammad Al Gebaly

CAIRO, Dec 14 (Reuters) – Hamas’ chief negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya said on Sunday that a targeted assassination by Israel on Saturday 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 exile 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. officials told Reuters.

(Reporting by Menna Alaa El-Din and Muhammad Al Gebaly; Editing by Sharon Singleton)