By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Israel’s military confirmed Monday that it had “eliminated” critical leaders of the Gaza-based Palestinian Islamic Jihad group and Hezbollah in Lebanon after killing several other commanders over the weekend.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad group operative Ahmed Al-Dalu was described as “a terrorist who partook in the October 7 massacre” in [kibbutz] Kfar Aza, while Abu Ali Rida, a Hezbollah commander, was killed for directing strikes against Israel.

Throughout the war, Al-Dalu was reportedly involved in the planning of “terrorist activities” against Israeli citizens, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced.

Al-Dalu was killed in “a targeted strike” in the Gaza Strip directed by Israel’s internal service Shin Bet and IDF ground troops, military officials said, adding that “an additional terrorist” was “eliminated” with him.

Israel’s air force “struck and eliminated Abu Ali Rida, the Hezbollah commander of the Baraachit area in southern Lebanon,” the IDF said in a statement seen by Worthy News.

“Abu Ali Rida was responsible for planning and executing rocket and anti-tank missile attacks on IDF troops and oversaw the terrorist activities of Hezbollah operatives in the area.”

The IDF also “conducted an aerial operation and struck terror targets belonging to Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in Syria.”

HEZBOLLAH SOURCE

It came after, over the weekend, Ali Barakat, “a terrorist in Hezbollah’s Aerial Unit (127),” was killed as he was “a significant source of knowledge for the unit, spending over a decade planning and carrying out [drone] attacks on Israel. He was also involved in developing cruise missiles and [unmanned aerial vehicles] UAVs for Hezbollah,” the IDF recalled.

Additionally, since Friday, several other leaders of Iran’s proxies were killed by Israel, including the “commander of the Hezbollah Nasser Unit’s Missiles and Rockets Array, Jaafar Khader Faour,” the IDF said. He “was eliminated in the area of Jouaiyya in southern Lebanon.”

Faour was responsible for “multiple rocket attacks toward the [Israel-controlled] Golan, including an attack that resulted in the deaths of Israeli civilians from Kibbutz Ortal, an attack on Majdal Shams which killed 12 children and injured many, and the rocket attack on Metula last Thursday, which resulted in the deaths of 5 civilians, the IDF explained.

Additionally, “Faour was responsible for terrorist attacks carried out from eastern Lebanon, from which the first rocket launched toward Israeli territory was fired on October 8, under his command,” the military added.

Separately, two other Hezbollah commanders were killed as they were held responsible for firing hundreds of projectiles at Israel last month, the military announced.

“The IDF struck in the area of Tyre and eliminated two terrorists: Mousa Izz al-Din, the commander of Hezbollah’s forces in the coastal sector. [The IDF also killed] Hassan Majid Daib, Hezbollah’s artillery commander in the coastal sector who was responsible for the projectile fire toward the Haifa Bay on Thursday.”

These “Hezbollah terrorists were responsible for firing over 400 projectiles at Israel over the last month alone,” the IDF added.

POLITICAL BUREAU

Another person on Israel’s wanted wish list was Izz al-Din Kassab, head of national relations in Hamas’ Political Bureau in Gaza, who was “eliminated,” the military confirmed.

“Kassab was a member of Hamas’ political bureau and was responsible for national relations within the organization, overseeing the coordination and connection between Hamas and other terrorist organizations in Gaza.”

Additionally, “Kassab was responsible for the organization’s strategic and military relations with other factions in Gaza. He held the authority to direct the execution of terrorist attacks against the State of Israel,” the IDF said.

It said that besides degrading Hamas and its allies in Gaza, “the IDF has significantly degraded Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters, destroying military intelligence assets in Lebanon and damaging the organization’s intelligence-gathering capabilities.”

The “targeting of Hezbollah’s military intelligence assets in Syria further contributes to the IDF operations in Lebanon, undermining the intelligence abilities of the Hezbollah terrorist organization,” the military explained.

Despite ongoing warfare, Israel said Monday that the “second round of the polio vaccination campaign in northern Gaza began November 2. Some 58,604 children under 10 were vaccinated.”

The IDF said, “We will continue working with our partners, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), to facilitate an effective vaccination campaign against the polio virus.”

The polio campaign comes despite Hamas-run authorities’ reporting ongoing Israeli attacks have killed over 43,000 people. The figures have been complex to verify independently, and the Hamas-run health ministry does not differentiate between fighters and civilians.

Copyright 1999-2024 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.

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