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From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, January 22, 2025
IDF acknowledges it did not kill commander of Hamas’s Beit Hanoun battalion
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
The IDF acknowledges that it did not kill the commander of Hamas’s Beit Hanoun battalion back in May, after footage published today showed the commander, Hussein Fayyad, alive.
In a statement, the IDF says that, after Fayyad was targeted in May, “it was determined with a high level of probability by the IDF and Shin Bet that he had been eliminated, following which an IDF spokesperson statement on the subject was issued.
“After further examination, it emerged that the intelligence findings upon which the Intelligence Directorate and Shin Bet relied were not accurate enough,” the military says.