The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) eliminated two senior Hamas operatives directly responsible of the massacre of Israeli civilians in Kibbutz Be’eri. Ismail Siraj and his second-in-command Ahmed Wahaba were killed in an overnight airstrike in Gaza on Friday, the Israeli military disclosed in a press release on Saturday afternoon.
More than 130 residents of Kibbutz Be’eri were murdered, many of them tortured, raped and mutilated, when Hamas terrorists, under the command of these two men, attacked the community. Dozens others from the Kibbutz were taken as hostages to Gaza.
The fighters of Nuseirat Battalion, led by these Hamas operatives, have taken part in terrorist operations against Israeli troops since the Gaza ground offensive began on October 27, the IDF confirmed. “During Hamas’ murderous invasion and massacre on October 7th, the Nuseirat Battalion was responsible for terror attacks on Israeli communities in southern Israel, including Kibbutz Be’eri,” the IDF revealed in a statement on Saturday afternoon. “The battalion’s operatives have since been involved in anti-tank missile and UAV fire targeting IDF troops during the war.”
The latest targeted strike appears to be part of Israeli security services’ bid to hunt down Hamas terrorists involved in the October 7 attack. Shin Bet, in coordination with Mossad, has set up a dedicated unit to track down and eliminate every single Palestinian terrorist who took part in the massacre of innocent Israeli men, women and children, the Israeli media reported late October.
The Times of Israel reported the details of the IDF strike:
The IDF and Shin Bet announce that the commander of Hamas’s Nuseirat battalion, Ismail Siraj, and his deputy, Ahmed Wahaba, were killed in an airstrike this evening in the Gaza Strip.Siraj previously served as a commander of a Hamas Nukhba force company, and was also involved in manufacturing rockets, according to the joint statement.Wahaba, his deputy, was appointed to the role after the previous Nuseirat battalion deputy commander was killed by the IDF in the first weeks of the war.The Nuseirat battalion, in the central Gaza Strip, carried out the massacre in Kibbutz Be’eri and other border communities on October 7.The IDF says the battalion has also been involved in firing anti-tank missiles and drones at troops operating in Gaza in recent months.
In 2015, Professor William A. Jacobson visited Kibbutz Be’eri. Days after the October 7 attack, he wrote a post detailing the horrific Hamas atrocities committed at the Kibbutz. In a subsequent piece, he reported on the complicity of so-called Gaza civilians in the massacre.
Days after an alleged Israeli airstrike eliminated Hamas’s deputy chief, Saleh al-Arouri in Lebanon, Iran-backed terrorist militia Hezbollah has intensified rocket fire into northern Israel.
Today’s rocket attacks are in response to al-Arouri’s killing in a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut, Lebanon. The Hamas second-in-command, living under Hezbollah’s protection, was among the key planners of the October 7 massacre.
“Hezbollah claims to have launched 62 rockets towards Israel as an ‘initial response to … al-Arouri’s assassination’,” the Israeli TV channel i24News reported Saturday. “IDF reports approximately 40 launches from Lebanon toward the area of Meron in northern Israel identified, striking a terrorist cell involved in the launches.”
The terrorist escalation from southern Lebanon comes a day after Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah vowed to take ‘revenge’ for the Hamas’s deputy leader’s killing. The Israeli news website Arutz Sheva reported:
“The response is inevitably coming. We cannot remain silent on a violation of this magnitude because it means the whole of Lebanon would be exposed,” Hassan Nasrallah stated in a televised speech.”The decision is now in the hands of the battlefield,” he said in his second speech since the killing of Saleh al-Arouri on Tuesday.”Fighters from all areas of the border… will be the ones responding to the dangerous violation in the (southern) suburbs (of Beirut),” he added.
The Israeli military responded swiftly to the rocket fire, destroying a terrorist cell responsible for the latest strikes. “Following the volley, the IDF reported it struck a terrorist cell that took part in the launches,” the Israeli news website Ynet reported. “IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Friday that IDF forces “continue to fight throughout the Gaza Strip and employ the most appropriate operational method in every area of the Strip”.”
The IDF reportedly deployed a large U.S.-made missile-detecting balloon along the Lebanese border. The aerial system is probably for the detection of incoming long-range missile from Iran as Tehran rallied around Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis and other proxy terrorists groups to carry out multi-pronged attack on Israel as
Since October 7 attacks, the Israeli military is training reservists and regular troops for a war-like scenario on Israel’s northern border with Hezbollah-controlled southern Lebanon. “The soldiers are training for a range of circumstances, including daytime and nighttime combat, as well as urban and rural warfare,” the IDF disclosed mid-December.
The Times of Israel reported the deployment of missile-detecting balloon :
Residents of northern Israel and southern Lebanon have spotted the Israeli Air Force’s new giant missile-detecting balloon, which has largely been out of service during the past year and a half.The detection system, dubbed “Elevated Sensor,” or “Sky Dew” in Israel, is deployed at high altitudes to detect incoming long-range missiles, cruise missiles and drones.The system is not yet operational and has seen significant setbacks with its deployment.Kan news reports that the system was made airborne today after components ordered from the United States arrived.
During a mopping up operation in northern Gaza, Israeli soldiers found Hamas military equipment hidden in bags belonging to the United Nation’s Palestinian aid agency, UNRWA. The discovery once again highlights the UN agency’s long-standing complicity with Palestinian terrorist groups.
“IDF troops, directed by intelligence, conducted a targeted raid on an area in Gaza City from which shots were fired at the troops over the last few days. During the activity, the troops located Nukhba military vests that were concealed by Hamas in UNRWA bags in a medical clinic. In an adjacent building, the troops located RPGs, AK-47s, and ammunition,” the IDF said in the press release Saturday morning.
In 2021, President Biden reversed Trump administration’s decision to cut all funding for the corruption-ridden and terror-linked UNRWA. The Biden White House restored $235 million in U.S. aid to the disgraced UN agency.
As the Israeli ground offensive enters its tenth week, the IDF soldiers are engaged in house-to-house combat in Hamas’s southern Gaza stronghold of Khan Yunis, where terrorist group’s chief Yahya Sinwar and other key perpetrators of the October 7 massacre are believed to be hiding. The military continues to uncover explosives and weapon dumps in residential areas.
The Jerusalem Post reported the ongoing fighting:
In the southern Gazan city of Khan Yunis, IDF soldiers, using both ground and aerial assets, eliminated many terrorists in the area on Friday, the IDF said. A number of tunnel shafts were also reportedly uncovered and demolished.The weapons storage facility containing AK-47s was also located in this area. The facility also contained remotely detonated explosive devices, RPGs, as well as more than 100 ammunition cartridges, the military added.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY