With the terrorist groups in Gaza refusing to disarm and stepping up their attacks on Israeli troops securing the ceasefire line, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a wave of strikes on the terrorist command structure, eliminating a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) commander and targeting the commander of Hamas’s Nukhba forces that invaded Israel on October 7, 2023.
In addition to that, Muhammad al-Habil, the Hamas terrorist who murdered 19-year-old Israeli hostage Noa Marciano, was also killed in the latest wave of Israeli strikes.
On Wednesday, an Israeli airstrike targeted Nukhba forces commander, Bilal Abu Assi, who led the raid on kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023. During the raid, 47 kibbutz residents were murdered, and 76 were taken hostage. Following the October 7 massacre, Assi took part in the terrorist offensives against the IDF and may have been responsible for holding hostage bodies, the Israeli military intelligence believes.
“The strike targeted the terrorist Bilal Abu Assi, a Hamas Nukhba Platoon Commander who led the infiltration into Kibbutz Nir Oz on the brutal October 7th massacre, during which dozens of civilians were abducted and murdered,” the IDF said in a statement on Wednesday. “The terrorist likely took part in holding deceased hostages captive throughout the war, and in addition, the terrorist led terror attacks against IDF troops throughout the war.”
While the Hamas-Nukhba commander’s whereabouts are still unclear, the northern Gaza commander of the Islamic Jihad terrorist group has been eliminated in an IDF strike.
“A senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander was killed in an Israeli airstrike a short while ago in the central Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian media reports,” The Times of Israel reported Wednesday. “The reports say Ali Al-Razayneh, Islamic Jihad’s northern Gaza commander, was struck and killed in Deir al-Balah.”
The Hamas terrorist, who murdered 19-year-old Israeli hostage Noa Marciano, was also eliminated in the latest wave of Israeli airstrikes.
“The IDF and the Shin Bet said Wednesday evening that they killed terrorist Muhammad Issam Hassan al-Habil, a Hamas cell commander who murdered surveillance soldier Noa Marciano while she was held hostage in Gaza,” Israel’s Ynetnews reported Wednesday evening. “The IDF said Habil was killed in an airstrike in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, in response to gunfire in which a reserve company commander was wounded, an act that constituted a violation of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.”
19-year-old Israeli hostage, Noa Marciano, was abducted from a kibbutz on October 7, 2023. She was murdered weeks later in Gaza’s Shifa Hospital. Noa held the rank of Corporal and was an observation soldier in the Israeli Border Defense Force’s 414 Unit.
The IDF strikes came after Palestinian terrorists wounded an Israeli officer in an ambush across the ceasefire line. “An IDF reserve officer was seriously wounded overnight Wednesday after coming under terrorist fire in an Israeli-held sector of northern Gaza,” Israel’s Ynetnew reported separately. “The officer and his unit were carrying out routine activity on the Israeli-controlled side of the so-called “yellow line”—the ceasefire demarcation—in the Daraj Tuffah neighborhood in eastern Gaza City.”
The officer was “severely injured as a result of” the terrorist attack and was “evacuated to a hospital,” the IDF confirmed in a statement.
These strikes highlight the new Israeli military doctrine of rooting out terrorist threats before they can pose a deadly threat. “If before October 7, Israel was conservative in responding to such attacks, or preparations for such attacks if they did not target central Israel, following Hamas’s invasion, the IDF is pushing a more pro-active posture against any potential threats near Israel’s borders,” the Jerusalem Post observed.
On Wednesday, Israel released drone footage showing Hamas terrorists using civilian and humanitarian facilities to regroup and rearm as the U.S.-brokered ceasefire heads towards the second phase. Hamas is systematically using Gaza hospitals and schools as it seeks to regain control over the enclave, the IDF disclosed.
The Times of Israel reported:
Armed Hamas operatives are seen using ambulances to transport weapons in northern Gaza, according to the Israel Defense Forces, in drone footage published on Wednesday.The military said that “routine drone operations” in the Jabalia area, close to the Gaza ceasefire line, “exposed how armed Hamas terrorists repeatedly and systematically use ambulances to transfer operatives and weapons from a hospital to a school.”The clip shows gunmen operating around an ambulance at two locations.“This is further proof of the cynical exploitation carried out by Hamas on a regular basis and of its violations of international law under the cover of the civilian population for terrorist purposes,” the IDF said.The army said that since the start of the ceasefire, Hamas “has violated the agreement and focused its efforts on restoring its military capabilities.”
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