Israeli military assassinates top Hamas weapons smuggler with airstrike: IDF

The Israeli military assassinated the Hamas official in charge of supplying the terrorist group with weapons, the country’s military officials announced. 

An Israeli fighter jet in the southern Gaza city of Rafah conducted an air strike Friday killing Hassan Atrash, who was responsible for supplying and producing weapons for Hamas’ military arm, the Israel Defense Forces said Saturday.

Atrash also was involved with smuggling weapons from various countries into the Gaza Strip, as well as the West Bank, according to Israeli officials. 

The IDF on Saturday shared video of the strike, which showed a car cruising past pedestrians on a street as a cross-hair outlined the vehicle. Suddenly, a bright light blankets the screen, with smoke rising from the street afterward. 

Palestinian media reported the air strike Friday killed at least three people, according to The Times of Israel. 

The IDF has taken out a number of Hamas’ leaders since Israel began its recent military campaign to destroy the terrorist group. via REUTERS

An Israeli fighter jet in the southern Gaza city of Rafah conducted an air strike Friday killing Hassan Atrash. Xinhua/Shutterstock

Since Hamas launched its bloody Oct. 7 terrorist attack in Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking another 240 hostages, the IDF has bombarded Gaza and taken out some Hamas’ leaders.

Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic spokesman, announced Thursday the Israeli military had successfully eliminated four out of Hamas’ seven senior brigade commanders.

Over 20,000 Palestinians have been killed so far in Israel’s war with Hamas, according to unconfirmed reports by Gaza’s Hamas-linked health ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilian deaths and the deaths of its fighters.

The IDF separately on Saturday named five additional Israeli soldiers who were killed fighting in Gaza Friday and Saturday, bringing the total number slain in the ground offensive against Hamas to 144.