Israel eliminates top Hamas commander who helped direct October 7 massacre, IDF says
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Wednesday that it had eliminated a top Hamas commander who had helped direct an attack on Israeli troops near the Gaza border earlier this month.
According to the IDF, Mahmoud Khattab, a senior Hamas commander in the Gaza Strip, was eliminated by an airstrike. The military said the strike came after they became aware that Khattab had been involved in the October 7 attack against Israeli troops near the border, in which at least eight Hamas operatives were killed.
The attack was reportedly carried out by a group of heavily armed militants, and involved an anti-tank missile and a roadside bomb. In the wake of the attack, the IDF reportedly launched a retaliatory strike against Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip, killing two Hamas members.
The IDF said that Khattab had been “directly involved” in the attack, and that it was in retaliation for his role that the strike was carried out.
The military said in a statement that Khattab had been directly involved in “leading several recent terror activities,” and that he was in charge of recruiting and training militants for Hamas. It also said that he had planned several “significant terror attacks” against Israeli targets.
The statement also said that Khattab had been directly responsible for several anti-tank missile attacks against Israeli targets in the past several months.