Posted on 10/15/23
| News Source: Times of Israel
The military on Sunday said it killed another commander in Hamas’s commando forces who led the murderous attacks on southern Israeli communities last weekend, as Israel moved to evacuate a border city ahead of the Israel Defense Forces’ expected ground invasion of the Gaza Strip.
With the likely incursion looming, the IDF continued to urge Palestinians in northern Gaza to flee to the south of the coastal enclave while stressing its top priority would be rescuing the hostages held by terror groups since the October 7 onslaught launched by Hamas, in which terrorists killed over 1,300 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped 150-200.
The IDF said Billal al-Qedra, the commander of the so-called Nukhba unit’s southern Khan Younis battalion, was killed in an airstrike following intelligence efforts by the Shin Bet security agency and Military Intelligence Directorate.
“He was responsible for the murderous raid in Kibbutz Nirim and Nir Oz,” the IDF said.
Several more Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists were killed in airstrikes overnight in the Gaza Strip, according to the military.