Tel Aviv [Israel], Oct 28: The Israel Defence Forces and Shin Bet security services have confirmed that Issam Abu Rukbeh, the leader of Hamas’ aerial section, was killed in an attack during the night. Abu Rukbeh was in charge of the air defences, aerial detection systems, drones, unmanned aerial vehicles, and paragliders used by Hamas. He coordinated drone assaults against Israel Defence Force observation posts and guided terrorists using paragliders to reach southern Israel, thus playing a major part in the preparation and execution of the October 7 attack.The IDF declared on October 14 that Murad Abu Murad, the former commander of Hamas’s aerial forces, had been killed. Sgt Shirel Haim Pour, a 20-year-old from Rishon Lezion, was also named by the Israel Defence Forces as one of the soldiers slain in the October 7 Hamas attack. The Times of Israel claimed that after informing her family, her name was cleared for publishing. With the passing of Sgt Pour, who was a member of the Gaza Division, 311 soldiers, officers, and reservists had lost their lives in the fighting. Numerous skirmishes broke out between Israel Defence Forces soldiers and Hamas militants over the course of the force’s overnight ground operation in the Gaza Strip.But there were no reported injuries among the soldiers during these encounters. In the meantime, tonight’s fighter aircraft attacks in the northern Gaza Strip targeted over 150 subsurface targets by the Israeli Air Force. As stated in an IAF post on X, “terrorists belonging to the terrorist organisation Hamas were eliminated during the attack and combat tunnels, underground combat spaces, and other underground terrorist infrastructures were destroyed.” The ground operation is still ongoing, and the IDF is still present in the Gaza Strip with tanks, infantry, and combat engineering personnel. Furthermore, according to The Times of Israel, the IDF carried out airstrikes that targeted some 150 underground locations used by the terrorist organisation Hamas, killing a number of Hamas members.Separately, a cruise missile was fired towards Israel on Friday night by the Houthis, a terrorist group operating as an Iranian proxy in Yemen. The Israeli Embassy in New Delhi was notified that a missile struck Taba in Egypt, close to the Israeli border, injuring six Egyptian security officers. This is the second time the Houthis have attempted to attack Israel with missiles; the first effort was thwarted by an American battleship. The Israeli embassy further mentioned that the Houthis adhere to a Tehran-based strategy that seeks to intensify hostilities between Iran’s proxies and Israel.Israel is still determined to protect itself by whatever means necessary, and the international community needs to hold Iran accountable for any possible escalation of hostilities between Israel and the Houthis. Israel also denounced the damage done to Egypt’s security forces by the drones and missiles fired by the terrorist group Houthi with the goal of attacking Israel.
