The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Shin Bet eliminated several terrorists from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in the Gaza Strip during the past week, including Hamas operations commander Muhammad Hamed Muhammad Kholi and PIJ rocket commander Ashraf Adnan Muhammad Khatib, in response to a serious violation of an agreement in West Rafah where terrorists fired at an IDF armored vehicle, according to an IDF statement posted on X received in the reporting window ending at 12:46 a.m. UTC on January 23. The IDF statement detailed that Kholi, a key figure in Hamas's central camps division, participated in brigade assessments for the October 7 massacre and directed the 1995 attack at Nahal Oz checkpoint that killed Yevgeni Gromov. Khatib commanded the rocket and missile array in PIJ's central camp area, while Said Khaled Ali Abd al-Rahman oversaw sniping for Hamas's Deir al-Balah battalion. In a separate strike, two Hamas terrorists working to restore organizational infrastructure were also killed. The eliminations followed the Rafah incident earlier this week and constitute significant damage to the terrorist groups' ability to plan attacks against IDF forces deployed in Gaza under the agreement, the IDF said. The military and Shin Bet stated they will continue operations against such plots. This development occurs amid ongoing discussions on post-agreement arrangements in Gaza, including prior reports of a claimed push by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's national security adviser to allow Hamas to retain some weapons, as noted in an i24NEWS report on January 22.
