An Israeli military statement announced on Saturday that Ali Qadi, a Hamas militant believed to have led a unit responsible for the attack on southern Israel last week, has been killed in an airstrike.
The statement did not specify the location or timing of the strike, but confirmed that Qadi was a company commander of the Hamas elite commando force known as “Nukhb
A Hamas official declined to comment on the Israeli claim, while confirming Qadi’s role as a unit commander within the elite Hamas force. Both the Israeli military and a Palestinian official confirmed that Qadi was among the over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners released by Israel in 2011 in exchange for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas in 2006.
In 2005, Qadi was apprehended by Israel in connection with the kidnapping and murder of an Israeli man, who was reported at the time to be a broker for the Shin Bet internal security agency.
The breach of the fortified security barrier around the Gaza Strip by Hamas militants on October 7 resulted in the deaths of over 1,300 people in southern Israel, prompting an Israeli counteroffensive that has claimed the lives of at least 2,215 people in Gaza.