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Hamas security chief killed; 34th IDF soldier falls in Gaza

On Monday, the IDF announced that Jamal Musa, the head of Hamas’ special security operations in the Gaza Strip, had been killed in an Israeli airstrike.

By Joshua Marks, JNS

Israel Defense Forces Staff Sgt. Shahar Cohen Mivtach, 22, was killed on Sunday during ground operations against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military announced on Monday.

Mivtach, from the 9th battalion of the 401st brigade, died in battle in the northern Gaza Strip, bringing the IDF death toll during the ground offensive to at least 34. The IDF has so far released the names of 348 Israeli soldiers who have fallen since Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre.

Also on Monday, the IDF announced that Jamal Musa, the head of Hamas’ special security operations in the Gaza Strip, had been killed in an Israeli airstrike.

In 1993, Musa carried out an attack on Israeli forces patrolling the Strip, according to the IDF.

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Israel has carried out more than 450 air strikes in Gaza in the past 24 hours, targeting tunnels, terrorist cells, military compounds, observation posts and anti-tank missile launch sites, according to the IDF.

Israeli naval forces also struck Hamas command centers, missile launch sites and observation posts.

Ground forces took over a Hamas compound containing observation posts, training areas and tunnel networks.

Monday marked the 31st day of “Operation Swords of Iron,” launched by Israel in response to Hamas’s invasion of the western Negev on Oct. 7. On that date, accompanied by massive rocket barrages, thousands of terrorists crossed the border from the Gaza Strip, murdering 1,400 persons, wounding over 5,000 others and taking more than 200 hostages back to Gaza.

Since Oct. 7, terrorist groups in Gaza have launched more than 8,000 rockets indiscriminately at Israeli population centers.