Two and a half years after the October 7th attacks, Israel’s military and security services remain committed to hunting down the terrorist perpetrators. On Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) eliminated a Hamas terror cell commander who took part in the October 7th massacre.
The Israeli armed forces, in coordination with the Shin Bet security agency, “struck and eliminated a Hamas terrorist cell that had been planning to carry out imminent terror attacks against IDF troops operating in the central Gaza Strip,” the IDF said in a statement on Saturday.
According to the statement, “those eliminated in the strike” include “Hazem Rami Ali Aidi, a cell commander in the Hamas terrorist organization, who infiltrated Israeli territory during the brutal October 7th massacre.”
Aidi and two other senior Hamas terrorists were killed in an Israeli drone strike in central Gaza, the video footage released by the IDF suggests.
The elimination of this Hamas operative underscores Israel’s relentless commitment to tracking down every single terrorist behind the October 7th attacks. Weeks after the attack, Shin Bet created a special unit to track down and eliminate Palestinian terrorists who took part in the atrocities. The intelligence unit NILI, an acronym in Hebrew for Netzach Yisrael Lo Yeshaker, meaning “the eternity of God will not lie” (1 Samuel 15:29), is committed to hunting down every single Hamas commander and terrorist who killed, raped, and tortured innocent Israeli men, women, and children.
“This unit is dedicated to hunting down and eliminating every individual who played a role in the massacre,” the Jerusalem Post reported late October 2023. “The members of this new organization function independently from other Command and Control units that are focused on neutralizing strike cells and high-ranking terrorists.”
Other terrorists killed in Thursday’s strike are Hamas commander Ibrahim Mansour and terrorist-intelligence operative Maher Tantawi, the IDF revealed:
The terrorists Ibrahim Mansour, a platoon commander in the Hamas terrorist organization, who led numerous terror attacks against IDF troops throughout the war and was a key figure in Hamas’ force build-up and attempts to reconstitute its capabilities, in violation of the ceasefire agreement.”The terrorist Maher Tantawi, an operative in the military intelligence unit of the Hamas terrorist organization.
Israeli troops, operating within the ceasefire line, continue to locate and destroy tunnels and underground bunkers left behind by Hamas.
“Troops of the Southern Brigade and the Yahalom Unit, under the command of the Gaza Division (143), are operating in the southern Gaza Strip, east of the Yellow Line, to dismantle terror infrastructure in the area,” the IDF announced on Sunday. “During operational activity, the troops dismantled an offensive underground route approximately 800 meters long, which contained living quarters, military equipment and weapons, including vests and a rocket belonging to the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization.”
Under the ceasefire deal reached in October 2025, the IDF controls around 53 percent of Gaza. With Hamas refusing to disarm in violation of the truce agreement, the IDF continues counter-terrorism within the Yellow (ceasefire) Line.
After the 26-month-long military operation in Gaza, the IDF estimates that it had destroyed only 25% of Hamas’s vast tunnel network hidden beneath homes, schools, hospitals, and other civilian infrastructure.
Hamas’s underground terror infrastructure, dubbed the ‘Gaza Metro,’ is estimated to be at least 450 miles long and reaches depths exceeding 75 meters. This sophisticated network, built over two decades at a cost of roughly $1 billion, is off-limits to ordinary Gazans seeking shelter. They serve as terror command centres, weapons depots, and dungeons for holding prisoners and hostages.
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