The comments came as the military confirmed on Sunday that Rafa’a Salameh, the commander of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade, was killed the previous day in a targeted airstrike on terrorist infrastructure in southern Gaza.
“Salameh was one of the close associates of Mohammed Deif, the head of the military wing of the Hamas terrorist organisation, one of the planners and executors of the Oct. 7 massacre,” according to the IDF.
The army noted that Salameh joined Hamas in the 1990s and played a central part in the kidnapping of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in June 2006. He also played a significant role in Hamas’s tunnel project and was responsible for rockets fired into the Jewish state from Khan Younis.
Salameh’s death “constitutes significant damage to the military capabilities of the Hamas terrorist organisation,” added the IDF.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday night that it could not yet be confirmed whether Deif also died in the strike.
"I would like to assure you that one way or another, we will reach the entire Hamas leadership,” said the prime minister.
