The IDF said Saturday it had killed a Hamas commander involved in efforts to restore the terror group’s tunnel network in central Gaza. It also said it had killed an October 7 terrorist who had held hostages, shot a Palestinian who crossed into Israeli-held territory in the Strip, and detained an armed Hamas operative who breached the same boundary.
The Saturday strike in Deir al-Balah killed Sharif al-Hasanat, whom the IDF identified as a company commander in the terror group’s Deir al-Balah battalion. The military said Hasanat had spent much of the war helping restore Hamas’s underground infrastructure and had recently continued efforts to advance attacks against Israeli troops and civilians.
“Throughout the war, the terrorist led efforts to restore the underground infrastructure of the Hamas terror organization,” the IDF said, adding that Hasanat had posed an “immediate threat to our forces and was eliminated.” The military indicated it viewed that threat as justifying the strike despite the general ceasefire in Gaza.
The announcement came a day after the IDF said another Hamas operative, Sobhi Sami Mahmoud Shahtot, had been killed in a Wednesday strike in Nuseirat, also in central Gaza. The military identified Shahtot as a platoon commander in Hamas’s military wing who invaded Israel during the terror group’s October 7, 2023, onslaught.
