Israel on Saturday targeted senior Hamas terrorist commander, Raad Saad, in an airstrike in northern Gaza, Israeli media reports suggest. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) acknowledged hitting multiple Hamas targets in Gaza, but did not confirmed if Saad, Hamas’s number four terrorist, was targeted in the strikes.
Israeli “fighter jets and additional aircraft struck numerous terror targets in the Gaza Strip, including armed terrorists, weapons storage facilities, and additional terrorist infrastructure,” the IDF said in a press release Saturday.
The targeted Hamas commander is the senior-most Gaza-based terrorist to be targeted since the IDF eliminated Hamas’s number three Marwan Issa in early March.
Saad is probable the most-wanted Hamas terrorist in Gaza after Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar and top terror commander Mohamad Deif. “Saad is part of the Hamas senior command and was described as one of the shadow men in the terror group, much like Marwn Issa who was killed last much in an IDF strike,” the Israeli news Website YNET reported Saturday. “He was part of the “quartet of commanders who oversaw the war in the Hamas tunnel system and worked closely with Issa, Mohamad Deif, head of the terror group’s military wing and Yahya Sinwar.”
The Times of Israel covered the reports suggesting the IDF targeted Hamas commander Saad:
Unverified Hebrew-language media reports, citing “reports in Gaza,” claim that the target of the IDF strike in Gaza City was senior Hamas commander Raad Saad.Saad has been previously reported to be the chief of Hamas operations.He was thought to have been at Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital when the IDF raided the medical center in March, although he was not found there at the time.The IDF said it struck two Hamas military sites in Gaza City, and would provide further information soon.
The reports of Israel targeting senior Gaza terrorist comes hours after the IDF confirmed eliminating Hamas’s weapons supplier in a drone strike in Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon.
“An IAF aircraft conducted a precise strike in the Beqaa area in Lebanon in order to eliminate the terrorist Ayman Ratma, a central terror operative responsible for weapons supplies for the Hamas and Jamaa Islamiya terrorist organizations in Lebanon, as well as the development of terrorist infrastructure in the area,” the IDF confirmed in a press release.
“Ayman Ratma was eliminated due to his involvement in the promotion and execution of terrorist activities against Israel in the immediate future, as well as his involvement in advancing terrorist activity against Israeli civilians,” the IDF statement noted.
The Israeli armed forces were conducting operations against Hamas terror targets across Gaza. “IDF troops continue to operate in the central Gaza Strip, striking and eliminating several armed terrorists and dismantling terrorist infrastructure in the area,” the military disclosed Saturday. ” During one of the strikes, the troops identified a number of armed terrorists in the area, and an IAF aircraft then struck and eliminated the terrorists.”
The IDF continued the ground operation in the Hamas stronghold of Rafah. “In addition, IDF troops are continuing intelligence-based, targeted operations in the Rafah area. Over the past day, the troops dismantled terrorist infrastructure in the area and eliminated several armed terrorists in close-quarters encounters,” the military added.
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