Israeli security forces have eliminated 2,561 terrorists from the Gaza Strip who took part in the Hamas-led attacks on Israel’s south on Oct. 7, 2023, broadcaster Channel 12 reported on Friday night.
This includes roughly a thousand who were killed in skirmishes in the northwestern Negev as Israeli forces battled to regain control of the region in the first week of the invasion.
The Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) estimates that several hundred terrorists who participated in the atrocities are still alive, adding that the hunt for them continues, the report read.
The unit tasked with hunting down the perpetrators was formed in the wake of the Oct. 7 terror rampage and includes elements from the Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet.
The unit was named after the World War I-era Jewish underground organization Nili, an acronym for a biblical phrase (1 Samuel 15:29) that translates as “the Eternal One of Israel will not lie.”
It was given the operational responsibility to kill all those who took part in the massacre, as a principled decision made by the Israeli government.
On Friday, the IDF announced it had killed a Hamas Nukhba cell commander who infiltrated the Re’im military base on Oct. 7. Yahya Hamdan was killed in a precise airstrike in southern Gaza on Thursday, the military said.
In a separate announcement on Thursday, the IDF and Shin Bet said they had killed another Hamas terrorist who infiltrated Israel during the Oct. 7 massacre, abducted Israeli civilians and later helped hold them captive in the Gaza Strip.
The military said Waheed Abu Salam crossed into Israel during the Oct. 7 attack, participated in the kidnapping of Israeli civilians and was involved in holding hostages in southern Gaza throughout the war. He was killed in a joint IDF-Shin Bet airstrike in southern Gaza on Tuesday, according to the joint statement.
