Top Hamas commanders who led the murderous rampage against Israel are wiped out by airstrikes
- The elimination of two senior Hamas leaders is a boost for the Israeli government
Two top Hamas commanders who led the terror group’s murderous assault on Israel have been killed in airstrikes, it was claimed yesterday.
Murad Abu Murad, believed to have masterminded the deadly paraglider attack by Hamas gunmen last weekend, was killed by a bomb that targeted the headquarters of the terror group’s air operations.
Meanwhile, Ali Qadhi, a commander of the ruthless ‘Nukhba’ commando unit, was killed in a drone strike.
Officials unveiled black-and-white video of a massive explosion that engulfed a Hamas base where he was believed to be located.
Two of the masterminds of the October 7 Hamas terror attack are believed to have been killed in strikes. In the photo, smoke rises after Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip on October 12, 2023
The elimination of two of Hamas’s top leaders is a boost to the Israeli government’s pledge to wipe the terror group off the face of the earth.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared last week: “Every Hamas terrorist is a dead man.”
Since then, Israeli forces have prioritized attacks on Hamas commanders and officials, as well as on Gaza’s intelligence and financial infrastructure, ahead of an expected ground invasion.
Israeli security forces said Murad Abu Murad “played a major role in directing terrorists during the massacre” last weekend, which began with a barrage of rockets before gunmen flew into Israel on paragliders just after dawn.
The Israeli Air Force confirmed the attack against him on
“During the attack, Murad Abu Murad, the head of the air formation in Gaza City, who played a major role in directing the terrorists in the murderous attack on Saturday, was killed.”
Ali Qadhi was a notorious terrorist who was arrested by Israel in 2005 for being part of a Hamas cell that kidnapped and murdered Israeli citizen Sasson Nouriel.
Israeli forces have prioritized attacks on Hamas commanders and officials, as well as on Gaza’s intelligence and financial infrastructure, ahead of an expected ground invasion. In the photo, Israeli military vehicles and soldiers from an artillery unit gather near Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip
Nouriel was filmed by his captors reciting a message confirming his kidnapping by Hamas and calling for the release of several Palestinian convicts.
He was later taken to a dump and stabbed to death. Despite the heinous crime, Ali Qadhi was released in 2011 and deported to the Gaza Strip as part of a controversial prisoner swap.
He was one of 1,027 mostly Palestinian and Arab-Israeli prisoners exchanged for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier who was kidnapped and held captive for five years.
The Israeli Air Force announced that Ali Qadhi had been eliminated with the help of Shin Bet intelligence. The Israeli Air Force said terrorist operatives from Ali Qadhi’s Nukhba unit were “one of the leading forces that led the infiltration of Israel last Saturday.”
Meanwhile, the feared Israeli intelligence services tried this weekend to pin down the location of Yehya Sinwar, the de facto ruler of Gaza, who is believed to be the overall architect of the attack on Israel.
Sinwar, 62, who lives in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, masterminded previous terrorist operations against Israel, including attacks in 2021 that sparked a two-week conflict.
The Israelis bombed his house later that year but missed him. Before becoming head of Hamas in Gaza, Sinwar was nicknamed the “Butcher of Gaza” for the way he tortured and killed informants.
He was imprisoned for 22 years for killing two Israeli soldiers, but like Ali Qadhi, he was released in the 2011 prisoner exchange.
The Israeli Air Force also posted a video yesterday showing thousands of leaflets being dropped from the air in northern Gaza, calling on 1.1 million civilians to leave for their own safety.
