Hamas’ chief negotiator, Khalil Al-Hayya, warned on Sunday that Israel’s targeted assassination of one of the group’s senior commanders threatens the “viability of the truce” in the Gaza Strip.

In a televised address, Hayya, who also leads Hamas from exile, confirmed that Raed Saed was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Saturday. The operation marks the highest-profile assassination of a senior Hamas figure since a U.S.-backed ceasefire took 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,” Hayya said. He urged mediators, particularly the U.S. administration, to compel Israel to respect and adhere to the truce.

People mourn over a body, on the day of the funeral of Hamas’s senior commander Raed Saed and his aides, who were killed in an Israeli strike a day earlier, in Gaza City, December 14, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

Hamas sources have described Saed as the second-in-command of the group’s armed wing, after Izz eldeen Al-Hadad. Israel has identified Saed as a key planner of the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that triggered the ongoing conflict.

Hayya also addressed the proposed U.N.-authorised International Stabilization Force (ISF), emphasizing that its mandate should be limited to maintaining the ceasefire and separating forces along Gaza’s borders, without involvement in internal governance or domestic affairs.