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Israel eliminates Hamas military intelligence operations chief in Northern Gaza strike

1 min Oren Levi

Iyad Shambari, described as a key figure in Hamas's intelligence apparatus and a planner of the October 7 massacre, was killed in a joint IDF-Shin Bet operation.

His elimination marks the latest in a systematic Israeli campaign to decapitate Hamas's military and intelligence leadership © Mena Today 

His elimination marks the latest in a systematic Israeli campaign to decapitate Hamas's military and intelligence leadership © Mena Today 

The Israeli military and domestic security service Shin Bet announced Wednesday that they had eliminated Iyad Ahmed Abd al-Rahman Shambari, head of the operations department within Hamas's military intelligence headquarters.

Shambari was killed Tuesday in a joint strike carried out in northern Gaza. According to the joint statement published on X, he had held the position for several years and was considered "a key figure involved in gathering intelligence on Israeli army forces."

The two agencies also stated that Shambari had played an active role in planning the October 7, 2023 attack — the Hamas-led massacre on Israeli territory that triggered the war in Gaza and killed some 1,200 people.

His elimination marks the latest in a systematic Israeli campaign to decapitate Hamas's military and intelligence leadership. 

Over the course of the conflict, Israel has targeted and killed several senior Hamas commanders, including the group's political chief Ismail Haniyeh and its military leader Yahya Sinwar.

The strike comes amid an ongoing Israeli military offensive in Gaza and fragile ceasefire negotiations, with Hamas's command structure increasingly degraded but the group's capacity to resist far from eliminated.

Oren Levi

Oren Levi

Oren Levi knows this region the way only a native can. Based in Tel Aviv, he has spent years covering the complexities of Israel and the Palestinian territories for some of the country's leading newspapers and television channels. Sharp, well-sourced and relentlessly on the ground, he brought that expertise to Mena Today two years ago, and hasn't looked up from the story since.

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