Ex-captive celebrates after IDF kills terrorist who led Oct 7 massacre

Israel says Hasan Mahmoud Hasan Hussein, a commander in Hamas Nukhba Force who led terrorists during the invasion of Israel on October 7, was killed in an airstrike in the Gaza Strip.

By World Israel News Staff

A senior Hamas officer in the terror group’s elite Nukhba Force, which spearheaded the invasion of Israel on October 7th, 2023, was killed recently in an Israeli airstrike, security officials said.

On Sunday, the Israeli military and the Shin Bet security agency issued a joint statement announcing the killing of Hasan Mahmoud Hasan Hussein, a Nukhba Force commander responsible for the infamous massacre of Israelis in a bomb shelter on October 7, 2023.

Under Hussein’s command, the Nukhba Force unit, which carried out the shelter massacre, also kidnapped Israeli civilians.

“The IDF and Shin Bet eliminated a Nukhba terrorist who commanded the massacre at the roadside shelter on Route 232 near Re’im and took part in the abduction of Israeli civilians,” the army and Shin Bet said.

The strike was planned by the IDF’s Southern Command and used Israel Air Force warplanes, based on precise intelligence information provided by the Shin Bet.

Hussein served as a Nukhba platoon commander in the al-Bureij Battalion of Hamas’s Central Camps Brigade.

Along with fellow Nukhba Force commander Mohammed Abu Atiwi, Hussein led the Hamas assault on Kibbutz Re’im and the surrounding areas on Oct. 7.

Abu Atiwi was eliminated by the IDF in October 2024.

In addition to his role in the massacre on Route 232 near Re’im as Nukhba platoon commander in the al-Bureij Battalion, Hussein planned and carried out several terror operations against IDF forces operating in the Gaza Strip.

“The IDF and Shin Bet will continue to act forcefully against the terrorists from the organizations who took part in the murderous October 7 massacre,” the army and Shin Bet said.

Hamas terrorists murdered 16 Israelis in a roadside bomb shelter on Route 232, which was later dubbed the “death bunker.”

The victims had fled the Nova music festival massacre next to Re’im, hoping to find safety in the bomb shelter.

While seven of the survivors were eventually rescued by Israeli security personnel, four were taken to the Gaza Strip and held hostage.

One of the four captives abducted from the shelter, Eliya Cohen, expressed satisfaction after Hussein’s killing.

“Thank God,” Cohen said, adding that the other terrorists who held him captive were “next in line.”

“I think I am the happiest person in the world right now,” said Ziv Aboud, a survivor of the Nova massacre and Cohen’s fiancé.