Washington: Israeli fighter jets have killed the Hamas commander, who engineered the deadly attacks on the borders on October 7, in the first hours of the expanded ground attacks and incursion into Gaza, reports citing Israeli authorities said.
Nasim Abu Ajina, who previously led Hamas’ Aerial Array, and helped them develop drone and paraglider warfare, was killed in the air strikes, Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.
“His elimination significantly harms the efforts of the Hamas terrorist organization to disrupt the IDF’s ground activities,” USA Today reported quoting the statement.
He was commander of the Beit Lahia Battalion of Hamas’ Northern Brigade, suspected to be behind the brain behind the border attacks.
The IDF claimed it struck nearly 300 targets on Monday, including anti-tank missiles and military compounds inside underground Hamas tunnels.
Israeli soldiers killed militants and the air force targetted their terror infrastructure, the IDF said.
An Iranian general claimed that Hamaz has 400 km of underground tunnel network in Gaza indicating hunting them down was not an easy task.
Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman, said ground operations in Gaza are focused on the north, that includes Gaza City, suspected to be the epicentre of Hams military offensive.
“But we also continue to strike in other parts of Gaza. We are hunting their commanders, we are attacking their infrastructure, and whenever there is an important target that is related to Hamas, we strike it,” he said.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met with Saudi Arabian Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman Al Saud at the White House on Monday as the Biden administration stepped up efforts from preventing the Hamas war spiralling into a greater theatre of war in the Gulf region.
A readout released by the White House said both parties reiterated the urgent need to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
They stressed the importance of a sustainable peace between Israelis and Palestinians “building on the work underway between Saudi Arabia and the US in recent months”.
(IANS)
