An Israeli airstrike in Gaza City earlier today eliminated Asaad Abu Sharia, the head of the Mujahideen Brigades, a smaller terror group affiliated with Hamas. The group was implicated in the October 7, 2023, abduction and killing of several hostages, including Shiri Bibas and her two young sons. In a separate operation, another senior figure from the same organization, Mahmoud Kaheel, was also killed.
The Mujahideen Brigades acknowledged that both Abu Sharia and Kaheel had been killed. Abu Sharia led the group, which, though less prominent than Hamas, played a key role in the brutal attacks. Kaheel held a high-ranking position within the organization.
“The news represents another step for us in closing the circle and the process of accepting the great loss,” the Bibas family said in response to the announcement. They added, “Shiri, Ariel and Kfir will not return, but there is some comfort in knowing that the vile murderers will not harm another family.”
Shiri Bibas and her husband, Yarden, along with their children Ariel, age four, and nine-month-old Kfir, were taken hostage from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on the day of the October 7 assault, when Hamas-led terrorists infiltrated the Gaza border, murdering 1,200 people and abducting 251 others in the deadliest attack on Israeli soil.
During a brief truce in February between Israel and Hamas, Yarden Bibas was released. Hamas subsequently returned the bodies of Ariel and Kfir, along with those of fellow hostage Oded Lifshitz and a deceased woman from Gaza who they falsely claimed was Shiri Bibas. Following objections by Israel, Hamas later returned Shiri’s actual remains.
IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari at the time disclosed that the two boys were murdered by their captors in November 2023. He said they were killed “in cold blood” and “with bare hands,” and that Hamas operatives tried to cover up the killings. “Yarden Bibas asked me to make sure the world knows and is horrified by the way his children were murdered,” Hagari said.
The military noted that in addition to the Bibas family, the Mujahideen Brigades were also behind the kidnapping and murder of Gadi Haggai and Judih Weinstein, as well as Thai worker Nattapong Pinta. The bodies of Haggai and Weinstein were recovered from Gaza Wednesday night. Pinta’s body was returned to Israel today.
Haggai and Weinstein, ages 72 and 70, were an American-Israeli couple. They were killed during their morning walk near Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, and the IDF confirmed their deaths in December 2023.
Pinta, a 31-year-old Thai national working in agriculture in Israel, had come to the country a year and a half before the attack. He was abducted from the same kibbutz where he worked in the fields, and later killed in captivity. He had been supporting his wife and young son back in Thailand.
Palestinian media outlets reported that more than 30 people were killed in the airstrike on the Sabra neighborhood that took out Abu Sharia. The separate strike targeting Kaheel also killed members of his family, including his wife and children, according to statements from the terror group.
The IDF said Abu Sharia was among the terrorists who stormed Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7 and that he played a central role in the abduction and murder of civilians, including the Bibas family. The military also accused him of orchestrating attacks within Gaza and directing terror activity from the West Bank aimed at harming Israelis.
{Matzav.com}