IDF Eliminates Hamas Commander Who Held 3 Hostages in Gaza

The IDF struck in the Gaza City area earlier this week and eliminated Muhammad Mahsan Nimer Yazji, a battalion commander in Hamas's Shati battalion. The terrorist was involved throughout the war in holding hostages in the Gaza City brigade area, among them Emily Damari, Romi Gonen and Matan Angrest.

According to the IDF spokesperson, Yazji had recently been advancing terror operations against IDF forces and Israeli civilians and working to restore Hamas's capabilities, in systematic violation of the ceasefire. The terrorist was eliminated from the air in order to remove the threat he posed.

Emily Damari, one of the hostages held captive in the area where Yazji operated, was released after 471 days of brutal captivity. About two weeks ago, marking three years since the October 7 massacre, Damari released harrowing footage from her first days in captivity, including photographs from the operating room at Shifa Hospital surrounded by Gazan medical staff and armed Hamas terrorists.

"Three years ago at this hour on Simchas Torah, I was deep deep in the Gaza Strip," Damari wrote in a moving post. "I'm inside a disgusting room full of blood, a corpse on the floor next to me, a 'doctor' approaches and introduces himself as Dr. Hamas with another 10 monsters with Kalashnikovs over my head, and I'm just praying to G-d to protect me in this situation."

Emily Damari in the operating room at Shifa Hospital

Romi Gonen, another captivity survivor who was held in the area, shared this past March that she experienced a severe panic attack when a siren caught her on the road. "The siren caught me twice on the road, and it immediately throws me back to helplessness and uncontrolled fear," she wrote. "I experienced the most extreme panic attack I've had since I returned, and I was alone."

In another strike carried out the day before yesterday in the Jabaliya area, the IDF eliminated the terrorist Muhammad Fuzi Muhammad Awad Jamal, a terrorist in the Daraj Tuffah battalion of Hamas's military wing. He too had recently been advancing terror operations against IDF forces and Israeli civilians and working to restore the organization's capabilities, in systematic violation of the ceasefire.

Prior to the strikes, steps were taken to minimize harm to civilians, including the use of precision munitions and aerial surveillance. IDF forces in the Southern Command are deployed in the area in accordance with the agreement and will continue to act to remove any immediate threat.