Israel Reveals Another Breakthrough, Eliminates Hamas Battalion Commander

IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagai noted that Farhat was responsible for the kidnapping of IDF soldier Oron Shaul during the 2014 war, Operation Protective Edge.

Israeli bombardment killed a local official in south Lebanon on Monday, the state-run National News Agency said.

The killing of the Lebanese village mayor comes amid cross-border exchanges of fire mainly between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, Arab News reports.

The Lebanese news agency reported the death of Hussein Mansour, 80, a local official from Taybeh near the border, “in an Israeli enemy attack” on the village.

“The shell that targeted (Mansour’s) house did not explode” but struck the local official and killed him, the NNA said, adding that eight other people were on a balcony with him at the time.

Earlier on Monday, the Israel Defense Forces announced the killing of the Commander of Hamas’ Shejaiya Battalion, Emad Krikae.

The IDF announced on X that after the killing of former long-sought major Hamas’ Shujaiya Battalion Commander, Wessam Farhat, Krikae who was the Deputy Commander of the Battalion and was previously responsible for the anti-tank missile training in the Gaza City Brigade took over the position of the Commander.

The IDF stated that Krikae was part of anti-tank missile fire and terrorist raids carried out inside Israeli territory in the ongoing Israeli-Hamas war in the Middle East.

The IDF and Shin Bet earlier this month announced in a joint statement that Krikae’s predecessor, Farhat, was killed in an airstrike.

IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagai noted that Farhat was responsible for the kidnapping of IDF soldier Oron Shaul during the 2014 war, Operation Protective Edge.

According to IDF, Farhat began his command over the battalion in 2010 and commanded it during Operation “Protective Edge” – during which he ordered terrorists to target IDF soldiers in Shujaiya, including a dual attack that resulted in the deaths of six IDF soldiers.

The terrorist commander was reportedly among those who planned the October 7 massacre, during which he directed Hamas “Nuhkba” terrorists to infiltrate the Nahal Oz Kibbutz an IDF post.

Farhat was also accused of being one of the masterminds of the 2002 terror attack on Mechinat Atzmona, in which five Israeli civilians were killed.

He was also accused of being one of the masterminds of the anti-tank missile terror attack on a civilian bus in Nahal Oz in 2011, in which an Israeli child was killed.

In 1995, while he was reportedly on his way to carry out a suicide attack in Israel, Farhat was captured and arrested by security forces; he was incarcerated in an Israeli prison for 10 years.

Following his return to Gaza, he worked in rocket production for the Hamas terrorist organization.