Commander in Oct. 7 Massacre Eliminated: IDF
A man who brought death, hate and horror to an Israeli kibbutz on Oct. 7, 2023, has been killed, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
Abd al-Hadi Sabah, who commanded the Nukhba platoon in Hamas’s West Khan Younis Battalion that conducted the slaughter of innocent civilians in Nir Oz, was killed, the IDF announced Tuesday, according to the Times of Israel.
Sabah was killed in a drone strike in the Khan Younis area of Gaza.
Of Nir Oz’s almost 400 residents, 42 were killed while 75 were kidnapped nearly 15 months ago, according to PBS.
I walked with @DouglasKMurray through the ruins of Kibutz Nir Oz, a community that was decimated on October 7th.
Most houses burned completely, those that haven’t been burned show signs of struggle and death. pic.twitter.com/HRTtmVcz5v— Alex Gandler 🎗️ (@AlexGandler) November 10, 2023
Also on Tuesday, the IDF and Shin Bet announced the killing of Anas Muhammad Saadi Masri, a commander with Palestinian Islamic Jihad, according to the Jerusalem Post.
Masri, who had been directing rocket fire against Israel since the Oct. 7 attack, was described as “a significant figure responsible for executing numerous terrorist operations, managing and directing actions by the organization that targeted Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers.”
In the days after the Oct. 7 massacres, war correspondent Itai Anghel visited Nir Oz. according to CBS.
“You see hell,” he said.
“It’s like you visit a nightmare. I remember that’s what I felt when I came back from Rwanda, the genocide, when I came back from Syria, Iraq, when I witnessed what ISIS did. And I felt it in Nir Oz. I mean, you see houses completely burned. You see bodies completely burned, mutilated,” he said.
Harrowing visit to the Nir Oz Kibbutz where so many were killed & kidnapped on Oct 7th ‘23 @NasareanO pic.twitter.com/U4A8rKHTyM
— Benedict Kiely (@benedict_kiely) December 30, 2024
“You know, I can express myself pretty good, but I cannot express the smell; it’s something that sticks and stays with you. This is horrible. You see the handle of the safe room in every house. It’s twisted. It’s a sign of the people inside who tried to give a fight in order to not let the Hamas terrorists enter,” he said.
He said he did not know whether the community would ever recover and its residents return.
“I want to believe that they will come back because houses are gone. You can build houses,” he said. “The question is whether you can rebuild a soul.”
In November, the kibbutz answered that question by vowing to rebuild, according to the Times of Israel.
The kibbutz said rebuilding will be “the real, meaningful victory.”
Of 220 homes in the kibbutz, only seven were not damaged in the Oct. 7 attack, leading many of its residents to not yet return. The community’s statement noted that it realizes some will never go back.
“There will be those who will not want or be able to return to live in Nir Oz due to the trauma and personal loss they experienced,” the kibbutz’s statement said, adding that those who do so will still be part of the Nir Oz community.
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