Hamas commander killed in Gaza airstrike: Israeli military

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced that a Hamas commander, who was responsible for carrying out raids into Israeli territory in the October 7 attack, has been killed in an airstrike in Gaza.

In a post on X late Sunday night, IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that “guided by the intelligence of the Shin Bet and the IDF, eliminated Haitham Khojari, the commander of the Shati Battalion of the terrorist organisation Hamas, using an Air Force fighter jet, under his command, they launched a raid into Israeli territory on October 7”.

According to Hagari, Khawajiri commanded the security of the activities of the at the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza and also commanded the fighting against the IDF forces at Camp Shatti.

“During his position, Khawajri was responsible for a lot of terrorist activity against the residents of the State of Israel,” the IDF spokesperson added.

The IDF took control of the Al-Shati refugee camp located in the northern Gaza Strip in November.

Earlier on Sunday, the IDF had announced that it eliminated 500 of the more than 800 exposed shafts to Hamas’ underground tunnels located near or inside kindergartens, schools, playgrounds and mosques.

“To be clear, these places aren’t childproof, but rather teeming with terrorism. Every tunnel shaft and weapon we find is further proof of how Hamas deliberately uses the residents of Gaza for their terrorist agenda against Israelis,” it said in a post on X.

Israel resumed its attacks on Gaza since the collapse of the seven-day humanitarian truce on December 1.

In the last 24 hours, the military said that an IDF UAV targeted and eliminated five Hamas terrorists.

It also said that Israel Air Force fighter jets and helicopters struck Hamas terrorist targets; tunnel shafts, command centres and weapons storage facilities.

Meanwhile, IDF naval troops struck infrastructure, vessels belonging to the militant group’s naval forces and weapons.