IDF confirms Hamas battalion commander and deputy who helped plan Oct. 7 killed, with 2 others

The IDF officially confirms that the commander of Hamas’s East Rafah Battalion, his deputy, and two other terror operatives were killed while trying to escape a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday.

The four were spotted emerging from the tunnels in eastern Rafah, an IDF-held area where dozens of Hamas fighters were believed to be trapped underground. According to the military, the four operatives were killed by troops and the Israeli Air Force.

The IDF says that following a review of intelligence, it can officially confirm that Mohammad Bawab, the East Rafah Battalion commander; Ismail Abu Labda, the deputy battalion commander; Tawfiq Salem, a company commander; and Abdullah Hamad, the son of a senior Hamas official, were the four operatives killed.

Bawab and Abu Labda were responsible for planning the battalion’s invasion of southern Israel during the October 7, 2023, onslaught, the military says.

Hamad, the son of senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad, served as a security officer in Bawab’s team, according to the army.