IDF Confirms Elimination of Hamas Battalion Commander Linked to Oct. 7 Attacks

By Yoni Weiss

The IDF announced on Motzoei Shabbos the targeted airstrike resulting in the elimination of Wessam Farhat, commander of Hamas’s Shejaya Battalion since 2010. Farhat, identified as one of the architects of the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israeli communities, was taken down based on intelligence gathered by the IDF.

He played a significant role in orchestrating the Oct. 7 attacks, dispatching Nukhba terrorists to Kibbutz Nachal Oz and the adjacent IDF outpost, resulting in the killings of 61 soldiers and 12 civilians, Hy”d.

According to IDF reports, Farhat was accountable for the deaths of six IDF soldiers during the 2014 Gaza war. Moreover, he was involved in planning the 2002 terror attack in Atzmona, which claimed the lives of five Israeli students aged 18-19. He also ordered a 2011 attack on a civilian bus in Nachal Oz, resulting in the tragic death of an Israeli child.

Farhat had previously spent a decade in an Israeli prison after being apprehended in 1995 while en route to carry out a suicide attack. Upon his return to Gaza, he was involved in Hamas’s rocket production efforts.