IDF kills Hamas’s Shejaiya Battalion chief, a week after eliminating his predecessor
Military also announces killing of commander who participated in October 7 attack and hostage release ceremony; airstrike reportedly hits Kuwaiti Field Hospital, killing one
An Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on Sunday killed the latest commander of Hamas’s Shejaiya Battalion, Muhammad al-Ajlah — the fifth leader of the battalion to be killed by the Israel Defense Forces in the ongoing war against the terror group.
The IDF announced Ajlah’s killing on Tuesday, after earlier announcing the killing of another Hamas commander who had participated in the group’s October 7, 2023, attack as well as in a propaganda ceremony surrounding the release of three Israeli hostages.
The Shejaiya Battalion commander, Ajlah, had replaced his predecessor Haitham Khalil less than a week ago, after the latter was killed in an Israeli airstrike on April 9.
Khalil’s direct predecessor, Jamil Omar Jamil Wadiya, was killed in March. Wadiya had taken over the battalion after his two predecessors were killed in December 2023.
Before taking the helm of the battalion, Ajlah headed its combat support company, where he was responsible for “arming the battalion’s terrorists with weapons used to carry out terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops,” the IDF said in a statement.
The military said it took steps to mitigate civilian harm in the strike.
The IDF also announced early Tuesday that an airstrike conducted some two weeks ago killed a Hamas terrorist who invaded Israel during the October 7 onslaught.
Hamza Wael Muhammad Asafah was the commander of a cell in the Nukhba force in Hamas’s Deir al-Balah Battalion, according to the military.
The IDF said that Asafah also participated in the “cynical” release ceremony for hostages Eli Sharabi, Ohad Ben Ami and Or Levy in February.
In announcing the strike that killed Asafah, the IDF again said that it took steps to mitigate civilian harm.
Also Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike hit the northern gate of the Kuwaiti Field Hospital in Gaza, killing a medic and wounding nine people, according to Saber Mohamad, a spokesman for the hospital.
The hospital is located in the Mawasi area, where hundreds of thousands of people have sought shelter in sprawling tent camps.
There was no immediate comment from the IDF.
Hospitals have become sites of fighting on numerous occasions throughout the 18-month war between Israel and Hamas, with terror operatives hiding in them or using them for military purposes, including holding and transferring hostages. The IDF has allowed mass evacuations of civilians prior to major raids on hospital sites.
On Sunday, an Israeli strike hit the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City. The IDF said the attack targeted a Hamas command center housed inside the hospital used by terrorists to plan and carry out terror attacks.
The Al-Ahli Arab Hospital has been the last hospital providing critical care in northern Gaza, which has been subject to broad evacuation orders for almost the entire war as Israeli forces operated against Hamas there.
A spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday that he was “deeply alarmed” by the strike on Al-Ahli, saying the attack dealt “a severe blow to an already devastated healthcare system in the Strip” and adding there was strong concern that medical supplies were running low as well as food and water.
The spokesman also noted that hospitals have protection under international law. Though humanitarian law grants hospitals protected status, much of that protection is lost when the facilities are used for active military purposes.
The war in Gaza started on October 7, 2023, when more than 5,000 Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel from the Strip, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are still holding 59 hostages. Twenty-four of the hostages are believed to be alive, while 35 have been confirmed dead by the IDF. Among the latter is the body of a soldier killed in 2014.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 50,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
Israel insists it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive
against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with
the Strip stands at 410.
1 comment:
Way to go IDF. Find your enemies and fucking kill them.
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