The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced Saturday that they eliminated Walid Haniyeh, a Hamas commander who directed the kidnapping of civilians during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, the military stated.
Haniyeh, who served as the deputy commander of a Nukhba Force company within Hamas's military wing, had continued to recruit and train terrorists over the past two and a half years, according to the IDF's statement.
On Oct. 7, Haniyeh infiltrated Israel and provided operational instructions to the terrorist cell responsible for taking Israeli civilians hostage into the Gaza Strip. The IDF also noted that Haniyeh was a nephew of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh.
In separate operations on Friday, the IDF killed three operatives in Hamas’s naval police unit, including the commander for the central camps sector. The military stated that Hamas's naval police operates under its military wing and directs terror attacks against IDF troops and Israel.
On Wednesday, the IDF killed Abd al-Rahman Maher Abd al-Karim Ziyada, who commanded a Nukhba Force cell and stole an Israeli military vehicle during the Oct. 7 assault. In another strike that day, Kamal Mohammad Hamdan Najjar, head of a Hamas tunnel unit in the Khan Yunis area, was eliminated. The IDF said these operatives posed an immediate threat and were eliminated in precise strikes.