Hamas Commander Who Helped Plan Oct. 7 Massacre Killed in Airstrike

Jerusalem, 2 December, 2023 (TPS) -- Israeli security forces killed the commander of a Hamas battalion, one of the masterminds of the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israeli communities, the Israel Defense Forces announced on Saturday night.

Wessam Farhat, who commanded Hamas’s Shejaya Battalion since 2010, was eliminated in a targeted airstrike based on intelligence, the IDF said.

He was one of the key planners of the Oct. 7 attacks, responsible for sending “Nukhba” terrorists to Kibbutz Nahal Oz and the nearby military outpost on Oct. 7. Caught by surprise, 61 soldiers and 12 civilians were killed.

According to the IDF, Farhat was responsible for the deaths of six Israeli soldiers in attacks he led during the Gaza war of 2014.

In addition, Farhat was one of the masterminds of the 2002 terror attack in Atzmona, in which five Israeli students – all ages 18-19 — were killed.

He also ordered a 2011 attack on a civilian bus in Nahal Oz in 2011, in which an Israeli child was killed.

Farhat spent 10 years in an Israeli prison after being caught by security forces on his way to carry out a suicide attack in 1995. Following his return to Gaza, Farhat worked in rocket production for Hamas.

At least 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on Oct. 7. Another 137 men, women, children, soldiers and foreign nationals remain captive in Gaza. Some people remain unaccounted for as Israeli authorities continue to identify bodies and search for human remains.