Israel announces the death of a commander of the elite Hamas cell in Gaza who planned and led the attacks of October 7

The Israeli army announced on Tuesday the death of Ahmed Fozi Nazer Muhammad Wadia, commander of Nukhba, the elite Hamas cell that planned and led the October 7 attacks in which nearly 1,200 Israelis were killed and another 251 were kidnapped.

“In a joint operation by the army and the internal intelligence agency (Shin Bet), the Air Force attacked a compound where Hamas militants were operating in Gaza City,” the armed forces announced in a statement this morning.

Eight militants from the Daraj Tuffah battalion were killed in the operation, including Muhammad Wadia.

According to the armed forces, Wadia took part in the invasion of the community of Netiv HaAsara, bordering the northern border of Gaza, which he reached by paraglider, and led the militant attacks there on 7 October.

“Wadia is the terrorist who drank Coca Cola inside the Taasa family home in front of Gil Taasa’s children, who survived the massacre after the militants killed their father on October 7,” the statement said.

The armed forces refer to a famous video in which Wadia was shown drinking Coca Cola next to the family refrigerator shortly after killing the children’s father, who was in the house at the time.

The bombing took place near the Al Ahli hospital in the northern Gaza capital, one of the most important centres in the area, although the army insisted that the attack did not affect the clinic.

They also claimed to have killed in the attack another high-ranking militiaman who carried out engineering activities, as a sniper, anti-tank operations and to provide explosives to the group.

“A number of steps were taken prior to the attack to mitigate the risk of harm to civilians,” the military added, using a phrase it frequently uses when attacking sites protected by international humanitarian law, such as schools or hospitals.

According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, Gaza City suffered a bombardment tonight south of the Zeitun neighborhood in the southeast, which hit a family home.

Palestinian media have not yet provided any details on the attack near Al Ahli Hospital.

The death toll in the Gaza Strip, mostly women and children, has risen to 40,786 since the start of the war, with 94,224 wounded, after nearly eleven months of incessant attacks by the Israeli army that have devastated the Palestinian enclave.

Egypt blames Netanyahu for ‘consequences’ of not withdrawing from Philadelphia

The Egyptian government rejected this Tuesday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement on Monday, in which he said he would not abandon the Philadelphia corridor separating Egypt from Gaza, and held him responsible for the “consequences.”

“The Arab Republic of Egypt holds the Israeli government responsible for the consequences of making statements that further aggravate the situation and seek to justify aggressive and incendiary policies that lead to further escalation in the region,” the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The presence of the Israeli army in the Philadelphia corridor is one of the main obstacles to reaching a truce in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

Netanyahu said on Monday that The Philadelphia corridor “will not be evacuated,” considering that “if Israel loses its control, Gaza will become a kingdom of terrorism.”

“Egypt expresses its total rejection of the statements made by the Israeli Prime Minister on September 2, in which he attempted to use the name of Egypt to distract Israeli public opinion, hinder the achievement of a ceasefire agreement and the exchange of hostages and detainees,” the Egyptian foreign ministry said.