The IDF reported Thursday that the Israeli Air Force, in cooperation with the Shin Bet, eliminated Mohammad Abu Itiwi, a Hamas commander who led the massacre at the Re’im shelter and was also an employee of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
On the day of the October 7 massacre, Abu Itiwi and the terrorists under his command threw grenades into the shelter where partygoers from the Nova music festival were hiding.
In one of the most memorable moments from that day, Nahal Brigade soldier Aner Shapira was seen in footage deflecting seven grenades with his hands. The eighth grenade exploded before he could throw it back. Of the 27 people inside the shelter, 16 were murdered, four were kidnapped, and only seven survived. One of those kidnapped, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, was later murdered in a tunnel in Rafah.
In a statement delivered Thursday, IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said, “We will continue to pursue and reach all those involved in this brutal massacre. We must remember the 101 hostages still held in inhumane conditions in Gaza. We are committed to bringing them home.”
A joint statement from the IDF and Shin Bet explained that Abu Itiwi, a commander in Hamas’s Nuhba unit in the Bureij Battalion of the Central Camps Brigade, was targeted and killed on Wednesday in an airstrike by the Israeli Air Force, coordinated with the Gaza Division's fire center.
It was noted that Abu Itiwi, who had worked for UNRWA since July 2022, was involved in the murder and kidnapping of Israeli civilians on October 7. During the war, he also directed multiple terror operations against IDF forces operating in Gaza.
Following this incident, representatives from the Israeli Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) demanded clarifications from senior international and UN officials regarding the involvement of UNRWA employees in the October 7 massacre and other terror activities against Israel.
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