The IDF and the Shin Bet have announced the killing of Amr Abu Jallah, the commander of the Hamas naval force in Khan Yunis, less than a day before the first Israel-Hamas ceasefire was to take effect on Friday at 7 a.m.
In a statement, the army said the assassination was carried out under the intelligence guidance of the Navy, the Military Intelligence Directorate and the Shin Bet.
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The IDF said it used fighter jets to target Amr Abu Jallah, who was a senior leader in the Hamas naval force and was involved from the beginning of the fighting in sending naval attacks that were thwarted by Israeli forces.
Meanwhile, the terrorist Hezbollah group fired more than 50 rockets at military posts in northern Israel on Thursday, a day after an Israeli airstrike on a home in southern Lebanon killed five of the group's senior fighters.
The waves of rockets sent over the border represented one of the most intense bombardments since Hezbollah started attacking Israeli posts in the country's north at the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war.
Hezbollah has said that by heating up its actions on the Israel-Lebanon border, it is easing pressure on the Gaza Strip, where Israel's crushing aerial, ground, and naval offensive has left more than 13,300 Palestinians dead and caused wide destruction in the sealed-off enclave.
The war was triggered by an Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel that left about 1,200 people dead, most of them civilians, and resulted in about 240 hostages getting taken to Gaza.
An agreement for a four-day cease-fire in Gaza and the release of dozens of hostages held by the terrorists and Palestinians imprisoned by Israel was set to take place Thursday but it was later announced in Qatar, which was a main mediator, that the truce would go into effect Friday morning.
This article was first published by i24NEWS.
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