By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
GAZA/JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Israel’s military said Thursday it killed Hamas Commander Mohammad Abu Itiwi, who participated in the October 7, 2023, assault on southern Israel while working for the U.N. aid agency in the Gaza Strip.
He was eliminated in a joint operation by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Israel’s domestic intelligence service, Shin Bet, Israeli officials said, apparently in Gaza.
Itiwi’s name was included in a list of at least nine employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) with ties to Hamas and other armed groups, Israeli officials said.
The U.N., after an investigation, admitted in August that nine UNRWA staff were possibly involved in the Oct. 7 attacks and fired them.
Itiwi, a “Nukhba commander in the Al Bureij Battalion of Hamas’s Central Camps Brigade,” was directly involved in the murder and abduction of Israeli civilians, Israel’s military announced Thursday.
About 1,200 people, including babies and the women they raped, were killed by Hamas fighters, who also abducted some 251 persons, according to Israeli authorities.
LEADING ATTACK
“The terrorist [Itiwi] led the attack on the bomb shelter on Route 232 in the area of Re’im in southern Israel,” October 7 last year, Israeli sources said.
That violence, described as the worst atrocities against Jews since the Holocaust, or Shoah, triggered Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
Nearly 43,000 Palestinians have since been killed, according to Hamas-run authorities who do not differentiate between combatants and civilians.
Israel says nearly half of those reported killed are “Hamas terrorists,” while ordinary residents who were killed or wounded have been used by Hamas as “human shields.”
The IDF explained that “Throughout the Israel-Hamas War, Abu Itiwi directed and carried out numerous attacks on IDF soldiers operating in the Gaza Strip.”
There was no immediate comment by Hamas, which has been dramatically reduced in strength following numerous high-profile assassinations by Israel.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
Firefighters backed by Dutch military helicopters battled Belgium’s largest wildfire on record Sunday as flames swept through nearly 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres) of nature reserve and threatened areas near the German border, while deadly blazes raged elsewhere in Europe, including Greece.
Iran-backed Hezbollah threatened to retaliate after Israel said Saturday it had killed a commander of the group in an attack that killed at least 11 people.
Kevin Rideout, an American missionary pilot kidnapped by suspected Islamist militants in Niger’s capital, Niamey, in October last year, has been released and is in U.S. custody, U.S. President Donald J. Trump confirmed Friday.
Concerns are mounting over increasing violence against Christians and churches across Europe after dozens of churches, religious symbols and worshipers were targeted in July, including cases involving bodily waste, arson and the stabbing of a woman praying in an Irish Catholic church.
Hungary’s former ruling Fidesz party suffered a legal setback Friday after the Constitutional Court rejected its challenge to the dismantling of controversial foundations holding vast amounts of state assets, while separate scrutiny intensified over billions of forints in public money spent on former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s social-media operation.
The United States is rapidly approaching another historic fiscal milestone, with the national debt now nearing $40 trillion as Washington continues running massive annual deficits and interest costs consume a growing share of federal spending.
U.S. envoy Jared Kushner met senior Hamas leaders in Egypt on Sunday as the Trump administration intensified efforts to move Gaza toward disarmament and postwar governance, even as Israel continued targeted strikes against terrorist operatives inside the Gaza Strip.