A top Hamas commander, responsible for dispatching militants to carry out the horrific October 7 attack on Israel, has been killed the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has claimed. Ibrahim Biari, the commander of Hamas's Central Jabaliya Battalion was reportedly killed in an airstrike in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday.
The IDF said that the strike killed Biari and several other terrorists and also caused the collapse of underground terror tunnels, leading to the destruction of several nearby buildings. According to reports from Palestine, at least 50 people were killed due to the strike and the subsequent collapse of structures. However, Hamas released a statement denying reports of Biari's killing, saying the "claim was just an Israeli pretext for killing civilians".
Killed in Airstrike
IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said: "During this operation, many terrorists were killed.
"Terrorists who were with him inside the building as well as under the building in tunnels. The targeting of the building [Hamas commander Ibrahim Biari] was in led to destruction in other buildings because of this extensive underground infrastructure.
"The purpose of that infrastructure was to carry out attacks against Israel and that infrastructure has collapsed."
The IDF also said that Biari was among the Hamas officials in charge of dispatching militants to execute the lethal strikes in Israel on October 7.
"He was very important, I would say even pivotal in the planning and the execution of the October 7 attack against Israel from the northeastern parts of the Gaza Strip," IDF spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said.
The operation reportedly included ground forces seizing possession of a compound that the IDF claimed was used by the Central Jabaliya Battalion of Hamas, according to The Times of Israel.
The IDF later said that two soldiers had also perished in the operations.
Killed at Last
More than 260 people were killed in the horrific shooting at the Supernova music festival in southern Gaza. Videos of revelers sheltering in orchards as bullets were heard went viral.
Biari was also accused of carrying out the 2004 attack on Ashdod Port, firing rockets at Israel, and planning multiple operations against the Israel Defense Forces during the previous 20 years.
Hamas had claimed the Israeli airstrike took the lives of more than 50 people in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.
The explosion, however, was described as a "wide-scale strike on terrorists and terror infrastructure" by the IDF.
Photos from Tuesday's explosion showed streets split by enormous sinkholes and neighborhoods crushed to rubble following the tremendous explosion.
Images depict scenes reminiscent of an apocalypse, with numerous distressed bystanders congregating around two massive craters. Some even climbed into these craters in a frantic search for any potential survivors.
Moreover, nearby streets were filled up with dozens of white body bags, awaiting burial at the hospital close to the settlement.
"More than 50 martyrs and around 150 wounded and dozens under the rubble, in a heinous Israeli massacre that targeted a large area of homes in Jabalia camp in the northern Strip," a Gazan health ministry statement read.
If verified, the figure will add to the already rising death toll in Gaza, which Hamas had earlier said had reached 8,525. Most of the dead are believed to be civilians.
Jabalia, the largest of the eight refugee camps in the besieged area, is home to 116,000 registered refugees who are forced to live in cramped, unsanitary conditions, according to the United Nations.
Independent verification of the number of Hamas casualties is not possible for figures published by Hamas. Nonetheless, scores of dead have reportedly been seen by journalists on the scene in Jabalia, and many are probably still under the debris.
Photographs taken from above depict scenes of destruction, with tall buildings torn down and just burned rubble left in their place.
As rescuers groped through concrete blocks and bent metal in a desperate search for lives and bodies, agonized cries pierced the dusty air.
