Hamas Commander Involved in Oct. 7 Attack Killed by Israeli Airstrike

Abd al-Hadi Sabah was killed in an airstrike while working from within a humanitarian zone in southern Gaza, the Israeli military said.

Ambulances transport wounded Palestinians from the Kamal Adwan Hospital to the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Dec. 28, 2024. Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP via Getty Images

Israeli forces have killed a Hamas commander who helped lead the terrorist attacks of Oct. 7, 2023.

Abd al-Hadi Sabah was killed in an airstrike based on intelligence gathered by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Israeli Security Agency, according to a Dec. 31 statement by the IDF on social media platform X.

Sabah was a commander for the Nukhba Platoon in Hamas’s Western Khan Yunis Battalion, according to the IDF.

In that role, the commander led the infiltration of the Nir Oz kibbutz during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, during which the settlement suffered extensive casualties and abductions. Sabah also led and advanced numerous terrorist attacks against IDF troops in the following 14 months.

The IDF said Sabah was operating from within a shelter in the designated humanitarian area of Khan Yunis, a city in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

Given Sabah’s location within a civilian population center, the IDF said it took precautions to mitigate noncombatant casualties during the strike and used surveillance and precision munitions to limit loss of life. It is currently unclear how many civilian casualties resulted from the strike.

Hamas’s use of civilian centers for its military operations has been the focus of intense debate since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, with many rights groups condemning Israel’s killing of thousands of civilians during the war. Israeli officials, on the other hand, say that the blame is on Hamas for deliberately placing its facilities beneath civilian infrastructure, including schools and hospitals.

Over the past year, Israeli forces have battled Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen, and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and have exchanged attacks with Iran.

Continuing into Jan. 1, Israeli forces launched attacks in northern, central, and southern Gaza, killing at least 17 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian news agency, which speaks for the Palestine Liberation Organization, previously designated a terrorist organization in the United States.

It is unclear at this time how many people have been killed as a result of the war.

Hamas-controlled health authorities in Gaza claim that more than 45,500 Palestinians have been killed, but they do not distinguish between civilian and combatant casualties. Israel, meanwhile, says that about 17,000 terrorists have been killed and that about the same number of civilians have been killed.

In May 2024, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on the “Call Me Back” podcast, “We’ve been able to keep the ratio of civilians to combatants killed—again everyone is a tragedy—but it’s a ratio of about 1 to 1.”

Israel and Hamas have been engaged in cease-fire talks for the better part of a year, as the Biden administration and other international leaders have attempted to halt the fighting and ensure that the few living hostages in Hamas’s captivity can be freed. Israeli officials say, however, that there will be no cease-fire until Hamas’s presence in Gaza is eliminated.