The IDF said Wednesday that it had killed two terrorists who took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, including a Hamas commander who held hostages in Gaza tunnels, in separate airstrikes over the weekend.

One of the strikes, in southern Gaza, killed Muhammad Nimruti, whom the IDF described as a Hamas platoon commander who crossed into Israel during the Oct. 7 onslaught. The military said Nimruti took part in holding numerous hostages in tunnels under Hamas control over the course of the war.

A separate strike in central Gaza killed Mu’awiya Aidi, a platoon commander in Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the IDF said. The military said Aidi raided Kibbutz Be’eri during the Oct. 7 attack and was also involved in planting explosive devices.

The IDF said both men had recently advanced plans to attack Israeli forces and civilians, and that each posed an immediate threat to troops operating in Gaza. The military said the two were killed in precise strikes.

The two killings follow a pattern Israel has maintained since a hostage-ceasefire deal took hold last October. That deal left Israel in control of just over half the Gaza Strip, with Hamas, which has refused to disarm, holding de facto control of the rest. The agreement largely stopped major fighting, but clashes have continued, and the IDF has carried out repeated airstrikes against Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives it says are planning attacks.

Israel has placed particular emphasis on tracking down members of Hamas’s Nukhba force and other men who took part in the Oct. 7 attack. In recent months the military has reported killing several such figures, including operatives it said were involved in seizing hostages. In May, Israel killed Izz al-Din al-Haddad, the head of Hamas’s military wing in Gaza.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir has described the so-called Yellow Line, the boundary marking the area under Israeli control, as the country’s de facto new border, and has said the military will not allow Hamas to reestablish itself in those areas.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the group the IDF says Aidi belonged to, is a separate Iran-backed faction whose fighters joined Hamas in the Oct. 7 assault.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)