Islamist movement confirms death of important military leader in Israeli strike

Ahmed al-Ghandour belonged to the Hamas Military Council. He was considered a “terrorist” by the American authorities since 2017.

The armed wing of the Palestinian movement Hamas announced, on Sunday, November 26, the death of the military commander of the Northern Gaza Brigade and three other executives, during the Israeli offensive on the Palestinian territory. Ahmed al-Ghandour was a member of the Hamas Military Council and considered a “terrorist” by American authorities since 2017. He was accused of being involved in an attack against the Israeli army in 2006 at the Kerem Shalom crossing point, between Israel and the Gaza Strip, in the far south of Palestinian territory.

Targeted for a long time by the Israeli army, he had lost two of his children in strikes before the current offensive. Among the other executives named in the press release from the Ezzedine al-Qassam brigades, all killed before the start of the truce in progress since Friday, is Ayman Siam, presented as the leader of the rocket firing units. “We swear before God that we will continue their path and that their blood will be a light for the mujahideen and a fire against the occupiers”adds the text.

“More than 50” Hamas commanders killed

Hamas rarely communicates about its dead. In mid-October, however, he announced the death of Ayman Nofal, a commander of the armed wing of the Islamist movement, in an Israeli army strike on the Bureij refugee camp. The IDF confirmed this, adding that Nofal “had carried out numerous attacks against Israel”, “supervised the making of weapons” And “took part in organizing the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit”Israeli soldier captured in 2006 and released in 2011.

A senior Israeli military official spoke a few days ago about the death of “more than 50” Hamas commanders since the start of the operation in the Gaza Strip. The figure could not be verified from independent sources by AFP. The army has “eliminated hundreds of terrorists and most of the battalion commanders”, he added, estimating that the damage caused to the enemy reduced its ability to fight today and rebuild tomorrow. The Israeli official also refused to give a precise estimate of the number of fighters killed.. “Not 10,000, not 1,000. Somewhere in between.”