The Israel Defense Forces carried out dozens of airstrikes Sunday night and Monday, including on empty white pick-up trucks belonging to the Hamas terror group, of the type used in the October 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel and in propaganda ceremonies for the release of hostages.

The IDF and Shin Bet security agency also confirmed on Monday that a top Hamas official was targeted and killed the previous night.

Rocket sirens sounded in the Israeli community of Netiv Ha’asara near the Gaza border on Monday, but were later confirmed to have been a false alarm.

The IDF destroyed over 100 pickup trucks used by Hamas terrorists, in airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on Monday, the military said.

Some of the trucks were used by Hamas in its October 7, 2023, terror onslaught in southern Israel, as well as for other operations in Gaza, including to transfer weapons, the army added.

Armed Hamas gunmen were also seen parading in such vehicles during recent hostage release propaganda ceremonies.

The airstrikes targeting the pickup trucks were carried out in all areas of Gaza. A strike hit a building where several pickup trucks were being stored, the military said.

Also Monday, the IDF and Shin Bet confirmed that top Hamas official Ismail Barhoum was targeted and killed in a strike on Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis on Sunday night.

Not long after the strike, Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Barhoum had been eliminated. Hamas also made an announcement.

According to the military and Shin Bet, Barhoum, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, was chief of the terror group’s finances and the successor to Issam Da’alis, the de-facto prime minister of Gaza, who was killed last week.

“Barhoum was a key figure in Hamas’ political bureau and was actively involved in the military decision-making process that directly impacted Hamas’s operations,” the joint statement said.

The IDF and Shin Bet said that he oversaw Hamas’s “financial management in the Gaza Strip, channeling funds to Hamas’s military wing, financing........

© The Times of Israel