Israel Kills Senior Hamas Re'im Commander

The IDF and Shin Bet say Hassan Mahmoud Hassan Hussein, a Nukhba company commander in Hamas’s Bureij Battalion who led the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on a roadside bomb shelter near Kibbutz Re'im where Nova festival attendees had sought refuge, was killed in a recent airstrike. The assault left 16 people dead, four kidnapped — including Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who later died — and seven survivors; Hussein’s co-commander Muhammad Abu Attawi was killed by Israel in October 2024. Disturbing footage, released at families’ request, shows gunmen dragging and taunting captives and transporting some to Gaza. Israeli officials said the strike is part of a sustained, nearly two-year campaign that has targeted and significantly degraded senior Hamas leadership, naming figures such as Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh. They said forces continue intensive operations (notably “Operation Gideon’s Chariots II”), dismantling tunnels and booby-traps and recovering weapons amid periodic rocket launches from northern Gaza that reportedly fell inside the Strip.