A top Hamas commander, responsible for the Kibbutz Nirim massacre in Israel, was killed in an Israeli airstrike today, the Israel Air Force (IAF) said in a statement.
Israeli intelligence pinned Billal Al Kedra's location in Khan Yunis, a city in the south of Gaza Strip. Al Kedra was a commander of the Nukhba force, a naval commando unit under Hamas' special forces unit of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
The IAF said in its statement that other Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror operatives were also killed in the strike.
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The Israeli forces carried out airstrikes on over 100 military targets in Zaytun, Khan Yunis, and west Jabaliya, targeting Hamas operational command centres and military compounds. The airstrikes neutralised several anti-tank missile launch pads and observation posts.
Last week, in a sensational land-sea-air assault on Israel, Hamas operatives infiltrated the country using motorised gliders, boats, and on foot. Nirrim, a kibbutz (settlement) located less than a mile from the Gaza border, was also one of the targets where Hamas carried out a massacre.
Residents of Nirim and other small agricultural communities along the border have become accustomed to the relentless barrage of rocket fire from Hamas. The people residing there often seek refuge in reinforced safe rooms, sometimes even sleeping in them, since Hamas came to power in Gaza in 2005 after the US unilaterally withdrew from the Palestinian enclave.
According to Israeli authorities, several were killed in this settlement in the Hamas onslaught.
Yesterday, another Israeli airstrike on Gaza City killed a senior military commander of Hamas who headed the Islamist group's aerial operations. Murad Abu Murad was killed when an operational centre of Hamas was struck.
