IDF: Be’eri kidnapper among two October 7 attackers killed in Gaza
Israeli forces killed a Hamas commander involved in abducting six people from the kibbutz and an Islamic Jihad commander who also took part in the attack
The IDF said Thursday that it had killed two terrorists in Gaza this week who participated in the October 7 attack on Israel, including a Hamas cell commander involved in the abduction of six people from Kibbutz Be’eri.
According to the military, Mohammed Jamal Mahmoud Abu al-Shaar, a cell commander in Hamas’s armed wing, was killed in an airstrike in Gaza City on Tuesday.
The IDF said he took part in the attack on Be’eri and helped abduct Sharon Hertzman-Avigdori, Noam Avigdori, Adi Shoham, Naveh Shoham, Yahel Shoham and Shoshan Haran, taking them into Gaza.
In a separate strike that day in Jabaliya, the military said it killed Musab Abd al-Jalil Sakheb Balbisi, a commander in Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s armed wing. According to the IDF, he also entered Israel during the October 7 attack.
The military said both men had recently been preparing attacks against Israeli troops and civilians, violating the ceasefire, and that the strikes were carried out to remove the threat they posed.
The IDF said it took steps before the strikes to reduce the risk to civilians, including using precision munitions and aerial surveillance.
Troops under the Southern Command remain deployed in the area in accordance with the agreement, the military said, adding that they “will continue to act to eliminate any immediate threat.”