WATCH: Top Hamas commander who led Nirim attack killed in Israeli airstrike

A high-ranking Hamas commander, believed to be responsible for the Kibbutz Nirim massacre in Israel, has been killed in an Israeli airstrike, Israel Air Force (IAF) said in an official statement on Sunday.

As part of the extensive IDF strikes of senior operatives and terror infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, the IDF and ISA killed the Nukhba commander of the forces in southern Khan Yunis, who was responsible for the Kibbutz Nirim massacre pic.twitter.com/7QJE1LWQXf

— Israeli Air Force (@IAFsite) October 15, 2023

Israeli Security Agency had located the position of Bilal Al Kedra in Khan Yunis, a city in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. Al Kedra served as a commander within the Nukhba force, a naval commando unit operating under Hamas’ special forces, known as the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. The IAF’s statement also indicated that several other members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad were casualties of the same strike. “The IDF also struck over one hundred military targets located in Zaytun, Khan Yunis, and west Jabaliya. These strikes impacted the capabilities of the Hamas terrorist organisation, by targeting its operational command centers, military compounds, dozens of launchers, anti-tank missile launch posts and observation posts,” the statement read. “Furthermore, operational command centers belonging to the Islamic Jihad terrorist organisation were struck, the statement added. Notably, a week before this event, Hamas carried out an audacious cross-border attack on Israel using various means, including motorired gliders, boats, and on-foot infiltrations. This attack extended to Nirim, a kibbutz situated just a short distance from the Gaza border, where a tragic massacre was perpetrated by Hamas operatives. Residents of Nirim and other small agricultural communities along the border have grown accustomed to enduring rocket attacks from Hamas. They often seek shelter in reinforced safe rooms, sometimes even sleeping in these secure areas, ever since Hamas took control of Gaza in 2005 following the US withdrawal from the Palestinian territory. Israeli authorities report that several individuals lost their lives in Nirim during the Hamas incursion. On Saturday, in a separate development, an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City resulted in the death of a senior Hamas military commander responsible for the group’s aerial operations, Murad Abu Murad. This operation took place when a Hamas operational center was targeted. With inputs from agencies