Head of Hamas’s Shejaiya Battalion, who led Nahal Oz attack, killed in airstrike, says IDF

The IDF and Shin Bet announce that an airstrike in Gaza City yesterday killed the commander of Hamas’s Shejaiya Battalion, who led the attack on Nahal Oz during the October 7 onslaught.

Haitham Razek Abd al-Karim Sheikh Khalil is now the fourth commander of the Shejaiya Battalion to be killed by the IDF during the war.

The strike in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood reportedly killed some 30 Palestinians.

According to the IDF, the strike targeted a Hamas command center located about a kilometer from Israeli troops operating in the area.

“Several Hamas terrorists operated at the site to plan and carry out terror attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops,” the military says.

The strike killed Khalil, who the IDF says “commanded the infiltration into Nahal Oz during the murderous massacre of October 7.”

During the war, Khalil planned and carried out attacks against IDF troops in Gaza and worked to plant bombs in combat zones, the military says.

Khalil previously headed a Hamas Nukhba Force company, and was appointed recently to head the Shejaiya Battalion after his predecessor, Jamil Omar Jamil Wadiya, was killed in March.

Wadiya had taken over the battalion after his predecessors were killed in December 2023. On December 2, 2023, the IDF killed Shejaiya Battalion commander Wissam Farhat and, a week later, killed his replacement Emad Qariqa.

While some 30 Palestinians were killed in the strike, the IDF says it took steps to mitigate harm to civilians, including by using a “precision munition,” aerial surveillance and other intelligence.

“The Hamas terror organization systematically violates international law while cruelly using exploiting civilian buildings and the civilian population as human shields for its terror activities,” the military adds.