Israel Eliminates Hamas Terror Commander Responsible for Nahal Oz Massacre on October 7 

Israel Eliminates Hamas Terror Commander Responsible for Nahal Oz Massacre on October 7 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has eliminated the Hamas terror commander who, on October 7, 2023, led the massacre of Israeli soldiers and civilians at Nahal Oz. Haitham Razek Abd al-Karim Sheikh Khalil, commander of Hamas’s Shejaiya Battalion, was killed on Wednesday in an airstrike on Gaza City, the IDF confirmed.

🔴 ELIMINATED: The Commander of Hamas' Shejaiya Battalion

Haitham Razek Abd al-Karim Sheikh Khalil was eliminated, together with other Hamas terrorists, in a precise strike on a command and control center in Gaza City.

Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate… pic.twitter.com/7QWcJ1LNZD

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) April 10, 2025

“The IDF and Shin Bet security agency said that the military commander for the central Gazan neighborhood of Shejaiya had been eliminated,” the Israeli TV channel i24NEWS reported Thursday. “Khalil was the terrorist in command of the infiltration into Nir Oz, and was responsible for numerous attempts to booby trap and kill Israeli soldiers during the war.”

Khalil, who was formerly the head of Hamas’s tunnel operations, led the terrorist infiltration of Nahal Oz, the military revealed. “The terrorist Haitham Razek Abd al-Karim Sheikh Khalil, commander of Hamas’ Shejaiya battalion, who commanded the infiltration into Nahal Oz and took part in the attack during the murderous massacre of October 7th, was eliminated in the strike,” the IDF said in a press release Thursday. “In recent years, the terrorist held the position of a platoon commander in the battalion and was the head of Hamas’ tunnel operation.”

He was killed along with several other Hamas operatives inside a Hamas terrorist base in northern Gaza. Israeli fighter jets “struck a command and control center, approximately a kilometer away from IDF troops operating in the area of Gaza City,” the IDF statement added. “Several Hamas terrorists operated from within the command center in order to plan and execute terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers.”

The Jerusalem Post reported the killing of the Hamas mass-murderer:

The IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) killed Haitham Razek abd al-Karim Sheikh Khalil, a commander in Hamas’s Shejaiya battalion, in Gaza City on Wednesday, the military confirmed on Thursday.

The commander had participated in the invasion of Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7 and executed multiple attacks against the IDF in combat zones since the beginning of the war, the IDF said. (…)

The terrorist reportedly worked as a Nukhba platoon commander at the time of the massacre and had worked as the head of Hamas’s tunnel operations. He later took the role as commander of the Shejaiya battalion following the deaths of the battalions’ prior commanders, Jamil Wadia and Fahim Farhat.

Khalil was killed during a strike on a Hamas command and control center operating only a kilometer from IDF troops.

The military said that while Hamas was “brutally exploiting” civilian infrastructure and populations, the IDF took steps to mitigate harm to Palestinians.

At the Nahal Oz IDF base near the Gaza border, “53 soldiers and officers killed in combat and 10 soldiers kidnapped to Gaza, including seven female spotters,” the Israel Hayom newspaper recalled in a recent article.

The massacre continued as Hamas terrorists reached the Kibbutz Nahal Oz. “Over the course of the massacre, 15 Israeli civilians were murdered in Nahal Oz, and eight others were taken hostage to Gaza. Five of them have since been released alive,” the Israeli news website YNET noted. “Four security personnel were also killed.”

According to a Palestinian source, another October 7 perpetrator, Hamza Asfa, who hurled grenades into a safe room sheltering civilians, was eliminated by the Israeli armed forces. Asfa’s father, a Hamas terror commander, was also killed by the IDF in the ongoing Gaza conflict, reports suggest.

Palestinian sources report the elimination of Hamza Asfa, a Hamas member who, during the October 7 attack, threw two grenades into a shelter where civilians were hiding.

Unsurprisingly, he also served as a police officer. He was reportedly killed by the IDF in recent days. pic.twitter.com/NyUEPjhOQY

— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) April 10, 2025

IDF continues Gaza ground operations, strikes dozens of terror targets

Since Hamas rejected the U.S. ceasefire proposal three weeks ago, the IDF has stepped up its ground operation, creating extended security buffer zones in the center and southern Gaza.

“IDF troops are continuing their ground activity in the Gaza Strip, dismantling terrorist infrastructure and eliminating terrorists,” the military said in a statement Thursday. “Over the past day, the troops eliminated several terrorists, located and dismantled terrorist infrastructure sites, and continued to operate to establish operational control in the [Rafah] area.”

🚨 The IDF intends to turn the entire Rafah area (20% of the Gaza Strip) into a buffer zone. The new buffer zone is between the Morag and Salah al-Din (Philadelphi) highways. This is the first time the IDF has placed an entire large city in a buffer zone. In the past, it has… pic.twitter.com/GExDaHKPD8

— Raylan Givens (@JewishWarrior13) April 9, 2025

“IDF troops continue to operate in the area of Rafah and along the Morag corridor, which separates Rafah from Khan Yunis,” Israeli news website Arutz Sheva reported Thursday.

The Israeli Air Force conducted dozens of airstrikes, hitting terror targets across Gaza. Over the past day, the IAF struck approximately 35 targets belonging to terrorist organizations across the Gaza Strip, including sniper and observation posts that posed a direct threat in the area, terrorists and terrorist infrastructure sites,” the IDF statement said.

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