Hamas military commander supposedly killed by Israel resurfaces in Gaza

Palestinian media reported on Wednesday that Hussein Fayyad, Hamas' Beit Hanoun Battalion commander who the Israeli army claimed to have killed in May last year, appears to be alive and well, speaking at a funeral in northern Gaza as seen in a video posted online.

A video relayed by several accounts on X and Instagram shows a man who appears to be Fayyad, praising Gaza's resistance to the Israeli invasion, the rubble of a building behind him and a group of men in civilian clothing listening to him speak. L'Orient Today has not been able to independently verify the video.

On May 23, 2024, the Israeli army claimed that its forces had killed Fayyad in a tunnel in Jabalia. The army's statement at the time described Fayyad as "responsible for numerous anti-tank missile attacks launched into Israeli territory during the war, as well as multiple mortar attacks targeting northern Gaza border communities [in Israel]."

The Israeli army has not yet commented on the apparent resurfacing of Fayyad, but the video has also been reported on by Israeli media. It's not the first time, the Times of Israel report points out, that the Israeli army has claimed to have killed a prominent figure in Hamas only to have its intelligence contradicted.