The leader of a brutal Palestinian jihadist group responsible for the kidnappings and cold-blooded murders of the Bibas family and an Israeli-American couple was killed in an airstrike, the Israel Defense Forces announced Saturday.
Asaad Abu Sharia, head of the Mujahideen Brigades, was taken out in a joint operation in Gaza City on Saturday by the IDF and the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, the groups announced in a statement posted on Telegram.
“During the war, the organization he led was involved in instigating terrorist attacks against Israel and fighting against IDF forces operating in the Gaza Strip,” the statement read.
Another high-ranking leader of the jihadist group, Mahmoud Kaheel, was killed in a separate attack, officials confirmed.
“The terrorists of the [Mujahideen] organization took a significant part in the murderous massacre on October 7, and were complicit in the kidnapping and murder,” they added.
During the deadly 2023 attack on Israel, the group aided Hamas by raiding the Nir Oz kibbutz, which was home to Shiri Bibas and her two sons, Ariel and Kfir, American-Israeli couple Gadi Hagai and Judy Lynn Weinstein, and Thai national Nattapong Pinta.
The Bibas’ remains were handed over to Israel in February and Hagai’s and Weinstein’s bodies were recovered just this week by the IDF and Shin Bet.
The remains of Pinta, 36, who had arrived to work on the kibbutz a year and a half prior to the attack, were recovered from Mujahideen Saturday in the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, also as part of the special joint operation, Defense Minister Israel Katz said.
Pinta, like the other Nir Oz victims, is believed to have been killed in the early days of the war.
In total, 47 people were killed on the kibbutz during the onslaught and 76 were abducted — only four of whom are presumed alive.
The bodies of seven captives from Nir Oz remain in the Strip, according to reports.
Pinta, who had been working on avocado and pomegranate farms before being take captive, had been sending his earnings to his wife and young son back in Thailand in the hopes of helping her open a coffee shop, the Times of Israel reported.
The father was one of 46 Thais who were killed while working in Israel.
Fifty-five hostages remain in capticity in Gaza, but only 20 are believed to be alive.
The IDF and the Shin Bet vowed Saturday to “to locate and thwart all terrorists … who took part in the murderous massacre on October 7 and in holding Israeli hostages captive.”
In recent weeks, Israel has expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip and announced Saturday that it had uncovered an underground tunnel route, including a command and control center run by Hamas under a European Hospital compound.
And with a concerns growing in the region over a humanitarian crisis, the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation was forced to suspend operations on Saturday due to “direct threats against GHF operations” by Hamas, according to reports.
“Hamas is the reason hundreds of thousands of hungry Gazans were not fed today,” the GHF said in a statement.
With Post wires
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