The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced the successful elimination of a senior Hamas operative who participated in the October 7, 2023 massacre, in a targeted airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip. The strike, directed by ground forces of the IDF’s 162nd Division and executed by the Israeli Air Force (IAF), killed Mohammed Shaheen, identified by Israeli military intelligence as a member of Hamas’s elite Nukhba force within the terror group’s East Jabalia Battalion. The IDF confirmed Shaheen’s direct involvement in the cross-border attack that resulted in the killing, mutilation, rape, and abduction of hundreds of Israeli civilians—the deadliest antisemitic atrocity since the Holocaust. According to the official IDF briefing, Shaheen’s role in the Nukhba unit made him a key planner and perpetrator of the mass assault, which was executed with the backing and strategic guidance of the Iranian regime, underscoring the continuous threat posed to Israel by the Iranian axis of terror. This operation marks another step in Israel’s ongoing military campaign to neutralize Hamas’s operational capability and reinforce its right to self-defense, as stipulated under international law.
Alongside the targeted killing of Shaheen, the Israeli Air Force reported conducting over 115 additional strikes throughout Gaza within a 24-hour period. The IAF’s operations targeted multiple components of Hamas’s military infrastructure, including rocket launching sites, weapons storage facilities, command posts, underground tunnels, and operational cells. According to an IDF release, the strikes involved extensive coordination with intelligence assets and ground forces to ensure the identification and targeting of legitimate military objectives while minimizing harm to civilians. Additional support was provided by naval shelling in northern Gaza, designed to assist IDF troops operating on the ground to secure territory and dismantle entrenched terror positions. These actions, Israeli officials emphasize, are vital to undermining the operational freedom of Hamas and disrupting the network of Iranian-backed militias that have transformed Gaza into a hub for terror activity targeting the Jewish state and its allies.
The Israeli military maintains that all operations in Gaza are conducted with strict adherence to ethical and legal standards, seeking to target only those individuals and infrastructure directly involved in terror activity. According to military sources, precision guidance, tactical intelligence, and rigorous oversight are employed throughout the planning and execution phases. The IDF’s efforts are further characterized by the ongoing coordination with international humanitarian organizations to establish safe corridors and mitigate civilian risk, a distinction that stands in stark contrast to the tactics of Hamas, which has systematically embedded its military infrastructure within civilian areas and utilized human shields in violation of international law.
The war in Gaza erupted following the October 7 massacre, when Hamas terrorists infiltrated southern Israel, perpetrating mass executions, sexual violence, and abductions across Israeli communities and border towns. The attack, which involved the Nukhba commando force and was carried out with support from Iranian and other Iranian-proxy elements in Lebanon and Syria, triggered a declaration of war by Israel and led to a comprehensive military campaign against Hamas and affiliated terror groups in the Strip. Israeli intelligence and Western security agencies have repeatedly cited the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as the primary architect behind the region’s destabilization, funneling arms, funds, and strategic direction to Hamas, Hezbollah, and other proxies active across the Middle East.
The ongoing Israeli campaign has focused intensively on dismantling the complex network of tunnels, weapons sites, and command centers established by Hamas over years of Iranian-backed military build-up. According to the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, the Nukhba force—a highly trained elite unit within Hamas—has served as the spearhead for both offensive operations, such as the October 7 massacre, and the ongoing defense of strategic positions in Gaza. Israeli military intelligence, supported by real-time battlefield surveillance, has prioritized the elimination of Nukhba commanders and operatives as essential for degrading Hamas’s ability to orchestrate further attacks and for undermining the Iranian regime’s regional agenda.
International reaction to Israel’s counter-terror campaign has been shaped by a combination of support for Israel’s right to self-defense, calls for adherence to humanitarian law, and concern over regional escalation. Western governments, led by the United States and key European partners, have consistently reaffirmed Israel’s right to take necessary measures to protect its population from terror attacks. Statements from the White House, the US State Department, and leading European capitals have condemned both the October 7 massacre and ongoing rocket fire against Israeli towns as unacceptable acts of terror. The Abraham Accords, brokered in 2020, further solidified Israel’s relationships with regional partners who share concerns over the growing influence of Iran and its proxies throughout the Middle East.
The current hostage crisis remains a central and deeply emotional issue for Israeli society and the government. Hamas continues to hold Israeli civilians, including children and elderly, captive in Gaza, using them as leverage for the release of convicted terrorists from Israeli prisons. Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz, have consistently drawn a clear moral and legal distinction between lawful Israeli efforts to recover hostages and the actions of Hamas, which are recognized internationally as acts of terrorism and violations of the laws of war. Israel’s comprehensive intelligence gathering and ongoing negotiations are aimed at returning all hostages while persisting with the overarching military objective of eradicating the terror infrastructure that enabled such kidnappings.
The Israeli Navy’s participation in the current operations reflects a growing trend of integrated joint-force tactics, combining air, land, and sea assets to maximize operational effectiveness and force projection. Naval shelling in northern Gaza has provided critical suppression of terror cells and logistical support for ground maneuvers, a role acknowledged by military analysts as consistent with best practices in urban counterinsurgency. The IDF’s operational briefings, regularly disseminated to domestic and international media, underscore Israel’s commitment to accountability, legality, and transparency in military conduct—an approach widely contrasted with the opaque and indiscriminate tactics of Hamas and its supporters.
As the conflict endures, the Israeli public and government continue to frame the war as an existential struggle—one not merely against Hamas, but against a broader Iranian-directed campaign to destroy Israel and destabilize the wider region. The IDF’s ongoing operations, including the precision elimination of senior terrorists such as Mohammed Shaheen, are portrayed not only as acts of self-defense but as essential contributions to the security architecture of the entire democratic West. The battlefields of Gaza, Western officials argue, serve as a front line in the collective defense against Islamist terror, a point repeatedly stressed by Israel’s American and European allies. The current military campaign, while focused geographically on Gaza, is thus fundamentally linked to the preservation of Western values, the defense of lawful civilian governance, and the fight against the spread of radical, Iranian-backed terror networks across the Middle East.
Western journalistic standards emphasize factual accuracy, neutrality, and proper sourcing. All information presented in this report is based on official statements from the Israeli government and military, as well as corroborated by international news agencies and recognized security analysts. No speculation or editorializing is incorporated, and the reporting is structured to provide a complete, contextual, and unbiased account of recent developments relating to the ongoing Israeli counter-terror campaign in Gaza.
