IDF Eliminates Hamas Military Chief Behind Oct. 7 Massacre

The strike came just eleven days after Israel killed his predecessor, with Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz declaring that every individual who participated in the October 7 attack is now marked for death.

Katz confirmed Odeh’s death on Wednesday following an announcement the previous evening by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the Jewish state had targeted the Hamas commander in a precision strike. The operation was carried out jointly by the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet after months of intelligence surveillance tracking Odeh’s movements and those of his operatives.

The IDF and Shin Bet characterized Odeh as among the last remaining senior Hamas commanders directly involved in planning the October 7 massacre, during which Hamas terrorists murdered approximately 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 others, predominantly civilians, in what constitutes the deadliest slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust.

The fourth commander of Hamas’s military wing to be eliminated during the war was sent to join his partners in the depths of hell, Katz stated Wednesday, commending the IDF and Shin Bet for the brilliant execution of the operation.

Katz emphasized Israel’s commitment to eliminating everyone responsible for orchestrating the October 7 massacre, reiterating that all such individuals are marked for death everywhere.

Israeli intelligence agencies struck multiple buildings in central Gaza City that Odeh reportedly used as safe houses, as Breitbart News reports. The strikes followed months of intelligence work linking him and members of his operational network to these locations.

Simultaneously, Israeli forces targeted a nearby apartment belonging to another Hamas terrorist who participated in the October 7 infiltration into Israel and was considered part of Odeh’s inner circle, the agencies confirmed.

Before assuming command of Hamas’s military wing, Odeh directed the terror group’s intelligence headquarters and was regarded as one of the principal architects behind the October 7 massacre. He oversaw intelligence gathering and operational coordination related to the attack and subsequent assaults against Israeli forces throughout the conflict.

Military sources confirmed that Odeh recently assumed leadership of Hamas’s military wing following Israel’s elimination of his predecessor, Izz al-Din al-Haddad, in an airstrike on May 15.

The IDF and Shin Bet described Odeh as one of the final senior commanders in Hamas’s military wing who participated in both planning and executing the October 7 massacre and managing combat operations against Israeli troops. His elimination represents a significant blow to Hamas’s efforts to rebuild its capabilities.

Israeli media subsequently reported that Odeh was the fifteenth of sixteen senior Hamas-Gaza military figures connected to planning and executing the October 7 massacre to be eliminated since the war began, leaving only one senior commander from the original leadership still alive.

The military later released video footage purportedly showing the strike that killed Odeh in Gaza City.

Israeli officials have increasingly characterized the campaign against Hamas leadership as part of an extended operation targeting every individual connected to the October 7 atrocities.

A recent Wall Street Journal investigation revealed that Israel established a covert elite task force designated NILI shortly after the massacre to identify, track, kill, or capture every terrorist involved in the attack, ranging from senior Hamas commanders to individual operatives who crossed into southern Israel during the assault.

According to the investigation, Israeli intelligence agencies assembled a database containing thousands of names tied to the massacre using facial recognition technology, intercepted communications, cellphone location data, social media footage, and interrogations of captured terrorists.

Israeli officials involved in the operation have reportedly insisted that no participant is deemed too insignificant to escape accountability.

Odeh’s death occurred eleven days after Israel eliminated al-Haddad, who himself had assumed command of Hamas’s military wing following the deaths of Mohammed Sinwar and longtime Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif.

Israeli officials have described the successive eliminations as part of a comprehensive effort to dismantle Hamas’s remaining command structure and prevent the terror organization from reconstituting its military capabilities during the ongoing ceasefire.

Later on Wednesday, the IDF announced it had also struck two additional senior Hamas commanders in northern Gaza, identified as northern Gaza brigade commander Izz al-Din Bik and Imad Aslim, deputy commander of the Gaza City Brigade and commander of the Zeitoun Battalion, as Israel continued its campaign against the terror group’s surviving military leadership.

With information from Breitbart News