Day 128 - Israel announces elimination of 3 senior Hamas police officers as operations in southern Gaza continue

IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and Shin Bet (ISA) head Ronen Bar visited the town of Khan Younis in Gaza on Saturday, where they conducted an assessment and met with the commander of the IDF Southern Command and forces of the 98th Division. 

During the tour, Halevi told the soldiers: "You are working very hard here on two missions: dismantling the Khan Younis Brigade, destroying its infrastructure, killing its operatives, and putting very strong pressure for the release of the hostages.” 

Halevi stated that the IDF was far from finishing the fighting in Khan Younis but said the IDF has had “a very great success so far.” He claimed that over 1,200 terrorists have been killed in direct fighting with ground forces in Khan Younis alone, while another 1,200-1,300 had been eliminated in airstrikes. 

“The Khan Younis Brigade is losing its capabilities and that's very important,” Halevi said. 

The IDF chief also stated: “We want to bring in more dead commanders and more senior officials.” 

Shin Bet head Bar informed the troops that the Hamas terror group's “intelligence and information disintegration is a disintegration for many years from which it is impossible to recover.” 

Hamas leaders are “wanted men” who were counting on their underground shelters to keep them safe and even though Israel had never fought directly against Hamas’ underground system before, they were now doing so, and learning from the experience. 

On Saturday evening, Israel announced the elimination of three senior Hamas police officers in Rafah during a targeted airstrike on the vehicle they were traveling in

The IDF released drone footage of the attack, which was a joint IDF and ISA operation and revealed that one of the terrorists, Ahmed Eliakubi, was “responsible for security provisions for senior Hamas leaders and served as a senior commander in the Rafah district.” 

According to the IDF, Iman Rantisi – a key figure in the terror group’s security investigation unit – and Ibrahim Shatat, the "supply investigations department head,” were also killed in the strike. 

On Sunday morning, Army Radio reported that handwritten documents by Gaza's Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the Oct. 7 terror attack, had been recovered in tunnels in Khan Younis.

The content of the documents has not been released due to security concerns, however, they indicate that the leader is on the run and out of contact with Hamas leaders in exile, according to the report.