An Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on Sunday killed the latest commander of Hamas’s Shejaiya Battalion, Muhammad al-Ajlah — the fifth leader of the battalion to be killed by the Israel Defense Forces in the ongoing war against the terror group.

The IDF announced Ajlah’s killing on Tuesday, after earlier announcing the killing of another Hamas commander who had participated in the group’s October 7, 2023, attack as well as in a propaganda ceremony surrounding the release of three Israeli hostages. 

The Shejaiya Battalion commander, Ajlah, had replaced his predecessor Haitham Khalil less than a week ago, after the latter was killed in an Israeli airstrike on April 9.

Khalil’s direct predecessor, Jamil Omar Jamil Wadiya, was killed in March. Wadiya had taken over the battalion after his two predecessors were killed in December 2023. 

Before taking the helm of the battalion, Ajlah headed its combat support company, where he was responsible for “arming the battalion’s terrorists with weapons used to carry out terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops,” the IDF said in a statement.

The military said it took steps to mitigate civilian harm in the strike.

The IDF also announced early Tuesday that an airstrike conducted some two weeks ago killed a Hamas terrorist who invaded Israel during the October 7 onslaught.

Hamza Wael Muhammad Asafah was the commander of a cell in the Nukhba force in Hamas’s Deir al-Balah Battalion, according to the military.

The IDF said that Asafah also participated in the

© The Times of Israel