Who is Ali Qadi, the Hamas leader who led the October 7 attack? – Liberation

Ali Qadi, identified as the Hamas commander who attacked Israeli civilians near the Gaza Strip last weekend, was reportedly killed in an airstrike.

Israel announced this Saturday that it had targeted a Hamas leader identified as the mastermind behind the October 7 attacks. “Based on accurate information from the military and internal security services, IDF planes killed the company commander of the “Nukba” commando, Ali Qadi. [«élite» en arabe, ndlr] Hamas launched terrorist attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip last weekend.A military spokesman told reporters.

According to this Israeli source, Ali al-Qadi, 37, is from Ramallah in the West Bank. He was allegedly arrested following the kidnapping and murder of Israeli civilians in 2005 and later released on October 18, 2011 as part of a Palestinian prisoner exchange for soldier Gilad Shalit. Israeli officials have agreed to release 1,027 Palestinian prisoners in Israel after years of negotiations. In exchange for the release of Gilad Shalit, a Franco-Israeli soldier kidnapped by Hamas on June 25, 2006. Ali al-Qadi would later be exiled to the Gaza Strip.

According to AFP, Hamas confirmed that Ali Qadi was the commander of the “Nukba” unit, but a source in the organization declined to comment on his death and gave no information on his fate. The October 7 attack by an Islamic movement considered “terrorist” by the European Union and the United States resulted in the deaths of more than 1,300 Israelis, most of them civilians, 3,200 wounded and 120 civilians held hostage in the Gaza Strip. , according to Israeli officials. Eight days later, human casualties in the bombed Gaza Strip were 2,215 dead and 8,714 wounded.