The Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday said it killed a “key Hamas terrorist” in a strike in Lebanon, and confirmed having killed in Gaza a Hamas terror operative who led an attack on Israeli civilians in the October 7 onslaught.
The military also killed at least 51 Palestinians in Gaza on Thursday, according to unverified figures provided by hospitals in the Hamas-run Strip, as IDF troops continued to advance throughout Gaza, a day after five soldiers were killed in battle.
The Israeli airstrike in Lebanon’s northern coastal city of Tripoli on Tuesday afternoon killed Mehran Mustafa Bajur, a prominent Hamas commander, according to the IDF.
Lebanon’s health ministry said the strike on a vehicle “killed three people and wounded 13” in an area that is close to a Palestinian refugee camp. An AFP photographer saw a burned-out car surrounded by the emergency services and onlookers.
The IDF said Bajur had in recent years advanced numerous attacks on Israel, and, since the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, led rocket attacks from Lebanon on Nahariya, Kiryat Shmona and other Israeli cities.
“Bajur served as one of Hamas’s key commanders in Lebanon, and as part of his role, he spent years establishing Hamas’s military capabilities in Lebanon,” the IDF said in a statement.
“Additionally, he was one of the leaders responsible for the terror organizations’ force-buildup efforts, and facilitated the purchasing of weapons through his connections with other terrorist organizations in the area,” the statement added.
The IDF said Bajur’s death was a “significant blow” to the Gaza-based terror group’s activities in Lebanon.
Hamas’s fellow Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah started the near-daily rocket attacks on the north on October 8, 2023, forcing the displacement of some 60,000 residents. Hamas and other allied terror groups also partook in the attacks. Under Israel’s November 2024 ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah, Israel is entitled to act against imminent threats in Lebanon.
The IDF also announced on Tuesday that Taha Abu Ayadeh, a platoon commander in Hamas’s elite Nukhba force, was killed last week in an airstrike on the area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
In the October 7 onslaught, Ayadeh invaded Israel with his platoon and attacked a gas station close to the Gaza border community of Kibbutz Magen, the IDF said.
Footage of the attack was published by the South First Responders group in November 2023. The footage showed two Israeli employees rushing to hide as Hamas terrorists opened fire and stormed the area. The employees reportedly hid in a freezer for hours before being rescued.
The military is surrounding Beit Hanoun “from all directions,” IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said in a press conference on Tuesday after five troops were killed in an ambush in the northern Gaza town Monday night.
“Beit Hanoun is a fortified area, where dozens of terrorists still remain. There are still many underground tunnels that we must demolish,” said Defrin.
“We will continue to attack and clear the area to remove the threat to the residents of the western Negev,” he said, noting that Beit Hanoun overlooks several border towns, including Sderot, as well as a train line.
In central Gaza, Israeli strikes killed another 10 people and wounded 72 on Tuesday, according to the Awda Hospital in Nuseirat. Farther south, in Khan Younis, Nasser Hospital records showed a total of 41 people killed.
Hamas health officials at Nasser Hospital, where victims were taken, claimed that one strike targeted tents sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis, killing four people. A separate strike in Khan Younis killed four people, including a mother, father, and their two children, the officials said.
Nisma al-Baiouk, the sister of one man who was killed in a strike, said “he sleeps in the tent with his two children, Awda and Misk.”
“My nephew Awda has no face, his face is gone,” she added.
The IDF had no immediate comment on the strikes. The military says it takes steps to mitigate harm to civilians, including using aerial surveillance and precision munitions, and accuses Hamas of embedding itself in civilian infrastructure including hospitals and designated humanitarian areas.
The fighting since October 7, 2023, has pushed the healthcare system in Gaza close to collapse. On Tuesday, the Palestine Red Crescent said the Al-Zaytoun Medical Clinic in Gaza City ceased operations after shelling in the surrounding area. It said the closure would force thousands of civilians to walk long distances to get medical care or obtain vaccinations for children.
According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, more than 57,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war. The figure, which cannot be independently verified, does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January, and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught. The onslaught killed some 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage. Terror groups in Gaza continue to hold 50 hostages, including the body of a soldier killed in the 2014 Gaza war.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 449. The toll includes two police officers and three Defense Ministry civilian contractors.