These two terrorists were also key leaders in Hamas’ ongoing battles against Israel in the northern Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces stated.
Tel Aviv: The Israeli Air Force carried out an attack overnight between Wednesday and Thursday in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, targeting several Hamas terrorists who had key roles in the October 7 massacre.
According to an Israel Defense Forces statement, the eliminated terrorists included Jihad Mahmoud Yahya Kahlout, a company commander in Hamas’s Nukhba force, and Muhammad Riyad Ali Uqal, also a Hamas company commander. Both were responsible for leading attacks on Israel on October 7, and orchestrating the massacre and abductions of Israeli civilians at the Mefalsim junction near Sderot.
These two terrorists were also key leaders in Hamas’s ongoing battles against Israel in the northern Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces stated.
On 7 October 2023, Hamas and several other Palestinian nationalist militant groups launched coordinated armed incursions from the Gaza Strip into the Gaza Envelope of southern Israel, the first invasion of Israeli territory since the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The attack coincided with the Jewish religious holiday Simchat Torah. Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups named the attacks Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, while in Israel they are referred to as Black Saturday or the Simchat Torah Massacre, and internationally as the 7 October attacks. The attacks initiated the ongoing Israel–Hamas war.
The attacks began early on 7 October with a barrage of at least 4,300 rockets launched into Israel and vehicle-transported and powered paraglider incursions into Israel. Hamas fighters breached the Gaza–Israel barrier, attacking military bases and massacring civilians in 21 communities, including Be’eri, Kfar Aza, Nir Oz, Netiv Haasara, and Alumim. According to an IDF report that revised the estimate on the number of attackers, 6,000 Gazans breached the border in 119 locations into Israel, including 3,800 from the “elite Nukhba forces” and 2,200 civilians and other militants. Additionally, the IDF report estimated 1,000 Gazans fired rockets from the Gaza Strip, bringing the total number of participants on Hamas’s side to 7,000.
In total, 1,139 people were killed: 695 Israeli civilians (including 38 children), 71 foreign nationals, and 373 members of the security forces. 364 civilians were killed and many more wounded while attending the Nova music festival. At least 14 Israeli civilians were killed by the IDF’s use of the Hannibal Directive.
About 250 Israeli civilians and soldiers were taken as hostages to the Gaza Strip, alive or dead, and including 30 children, with the stated goal to force Israel to exchange them for imprisoned Palestinians, including women and children.
Dozens of cases of rape and sexual assault reportedly occurred, but Hamas officials denied the involvement of their fighters.
The governments of 44 countries denounced the attack and described it as terrorism, while some Arab and Muslim-majority countries blamed Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories as the root cause of the attack.
Hamas said its attack was in response to the continued Israeli occupation, the blockade of the Gaza Strip, the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements, rising Israeli settler violence, and recent escalations. The day was labeled the bloodiest in Israel’s history and the “deadliest for Jews since the Holocaust” by many figures and media outlets in the West, including US president Joe Biden. Some have called the attack a genocidal massacre against Israelis.
BOX 2
Israel Kills Islamic Jihad Rocket Commander
Jerusalem
Israel has eliminated the commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group’s rocket unit, Khaled Abu-Daka, according to a joint IDF and Israel Security Forces (Shin Bet) statement.
The statement added that Abu-Daka was targeted yesterday as he operated in the Deir al-Balah humanitarian zone in central Gaza.
On October 7 and in the days since Abu-Daka oversaw rocket fire toward southern border communities.
Before the strike, extensive measures were taken to minimize the risk to civilians, including the use of precise munitions, accurate intelligence, and aerial surveillance, according to the statement.
In another incident, Israel early Saturday morning carried out massive air strikes on central Beirut, the capital city of Lebanon, according to local Lebanese media, which has reported several deaths.
An eight-storey residential building was completely destroyed with five missiles on Al-Mamoun Street in the capital’s Basta district, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA).
Videos on social media showed the purported wreckage of the building at which missiles were reportedly fired at around 4am local time, as per a report in Al- Jazeera, which said that this marked the fourth Israeli air strike this week targeting a central area of Beirut.
Israeli fighter jets have been carrying out repeated raids on the city over the past 24 hours.
Al-Jazeera further reported that Lebanon’s Ministry of Health has confirmed at least four casualties, while the number of injured stands at 23, following an Israeli attack in Basta area.
The National News Agency says Israeli war planes “completely destroyed an eight-story residential building with five missiles” and left a crater in the ground.
The Israeli military has not made any immediate comments on the reported strikes.