Two Senior Hamas Terrorists Killed in Rafah Strike

By Yoni Weiss

Sunday night’s strike in Rafah, which eliminated two senior Hamas operatives, quickly made global headlines against the backdrop of the International Court of Justice’s decision requiring Israel to halt any actions in Gaza’s southernmost city that might affect the civilian population under the Genocide Convention.

The IDF later announced that it eliminated Yassin Rabia, a senior Hamas commander leading the terrorist group’s operations in Yehudah and Shomron, and Khaled Nagar, a senior official in Hamas’s West Bank command.

According to the IDF, Rabia managed the entirety of Hamas’s terrorist activity across Yehudah and Shomron, transferred funds to terror targets, and planned Hamas terror attacks throughout the territory. In the past, Rabia carried out numerous deadly terror attacks, including those in 2001 and 2002, in which IDF soldiers were killed, Hy”d.

Nagar reportedly directed shooting attacks and other terrorist activities across Yehudah and Shomron and transferred funds intended for Hamas’s terrorist activities in the Gaza Strip. Both Rabia and Nagar served several life sentences in Israeli prison but were freed in 2011 as part of a prisoner swap deal for the release of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.

Among the deadly attacks Nagar carried out were the murder of Esther Galia, Hy”d, in November 2002, an attack in Ein Yabrud in which three IDF soldiers were killed in September 2003, and a shooting attack in which Tzvi Goldstein, Hy”d, was murdered and his family members were injured in June 2003. Nagar also helped direct the 2003 shooting attack that killed Shalom (Shuli) Har-Melech, Hy”d, the late husband of Otzma Yehudit MK Limor Son Har-Melech.

“The feelings are mixed. On the one hand, there is great relief that he has been eliminated and can no longer command the murder of Jews,” MK Har-Melech told Yediot. “On the other hand, there’s the painful lesson that once something is done, it cannot be undone. His release in the Shalit deal allowed him to return and murder more Jews. The consequences were unequivocal and clear, and our fighters had to chase those terrorists again, 20 years later. Today is another step in closing my circle and the circle of the people of Israel with its enemies.”