TEL AVIV, December 11. /TASS/. The Israeli army has eliminated the commander of the Hamas movement’s Shijaiyah Battalion, the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported, citing a joint statement by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Israel Securities Authority (ISA).

According to the paper, Emad Qariqa, who took command of the battalion just a week ago, was killed in an airstrike. His predecessor Wissam Farhat was also killed in an Israeli strike.

Qariqa had served as the deputy commander of the battalion since 2019 and trained anti-tank missile operators. The Shijaiyah Battalion is responsible for many terrorist attacks in the Gaza Strip, including a missile strike on a civilian bus in the Nahal Oz kibbutz in 2011.

Tensions in the Middle East flared up again on October 7 after militants from the radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip, killing residents of border communities and taking about 200 people, including women, children and the elderly, hostage. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. Israel announced a total blockade of Gaza and started carrying out strikes on targets in the Strip, as well as on certain areas in Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank.