The Israel Defense Forces on Wednesday announced the elimination of Hussam al-Shafie, a Hamas terrorist who infiltrated the Jewish state on Oct. 7, 2023, and helped abduct three soldiers.
Al-Shafie, a terrorist in the Eastern Khan Yunis Battalion of Hamas’s “military wing,” was killed in an airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, the military said.
“During the Oct. 7 massacre, al-Shafie infiltrated Kibbutz Nirim and took part in the abduction of Col. Asaf Hamami, Staff-Sgt. Tomer Ahimas and Sgt. Kiril Brodski, who fell in the battle at the kibbutz,” the statement continued.
Hamami, commander of the Southern Brigade in the IDF’s Gaza Division and the most senior officer taken hostage during the massacre, is believed to have been the first Israeli officer to declare on Oct. 7 that Israel was at war.
The IDF noted that throughout the past years of war, al-Shafie “advanced attacks and posed a threat to IDF troops operating in the area.” It added, “This elimination was made possible through intelligence gathering and with the direction of the IDF’s Gaza Division (143).”
“Troops under the Southern Command remain deployed in the area in accordance with the ceasefire agreement and will continue to operate to remove any immediate threat,” the statement concluded.
Earlier on Wednesday, the IDF announced that the Israeli Air Force killed two Hamas Nukhba Force commanders in a strike in northern Gaza.
The slain terrorists were identified as Ali Shamlakh, deputy commander of a Nukhba Force company, and Nasser Louh, head of a Nukhba Force cell in Hamas’s Sabra Battalion.
Shamlakh had “attempted to advance terror attacks by training terrorists who were planning to execute terror attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops operating in the area,” the IDF stated, adding that both men posed an “immediate threat” to soldiers.
On Tuesday, the IDF said it had eliminated a Hamas operative who headed military security for the terror group’s Central Jabaliya Battalion in a strike in northern Gaza.
The IDF identified the slain terrorist as Mohammed Marwan Mohammed Salem.
Three additional Hamas operatives were also eliminated in the strike: Abd al-Malek Abu al-Jabin, a Nukhba terrorist in Hamas’s Central Jabaliya Battalion and head of the Investigations Department in the Hamas Police; Yaman Mohammed Jibril Ubaid, a terrorist in Hamas’s Central Jabaliya Battalion; and Ghassan Akram Salama Dakas, a terrorist in Hamas’s Western Jabaliya Battalion and Hamas Police.
“In recent months, the terrorists gathered with the goal of planning and carrying out terror attacks,” the IDF said. “They were eliminated in order to remove the threat.”
The IDF said it used precise munitions and aerial surveillance to mitigate harm to civilians.
On Monday, the IDF eliminated a Hamas naval commander in a strike in the Gaza City area. Osama Naim Hamdi Shamlakh commanded a terrorist cell and “operated to rehabilitate and reinforce Hamas’s Naval Array force build-up and advanced terror attacks in the maritime domain,” according to the IDF.
In a separate strike in northern Gaza, the IDF eliminated three armed Hamas terrorists who tried to carry out attacks against Israeli soldiers operating in the Strip.
“The terrorists posed an imminent threat to the troops and were eliminated in precise aerial strikes,” the IDF said, adding that it took steps to prevent harm to noncombatants.
