Gaza, Jan 20: The Israeli military killed a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist in an airstrike in southern Gaza on Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces said on Friday.The IDF said Wael Abu-Fanounah was the Deputy Head of Islamic Jihad’s psychological warfare operations. He also held other positions in the Iran-backed terror group’s ranks, including as an assistant to Khalil Bahtini, the Islamic Jihad’s Commander of Gaza’s northern region.
Abu-Fanounah was responsible for publishing videos of the Islamic Jihad’s rocket attacks against Israel, as well as the creation and distribution of documentation of the Israeli hostages as part of the terror group’s psychological warfare waged against the Israeli public.
He was among 1,027 Palestinian security prisoners freed in the Gilad Shalit prisoner swap of 2011.
Separately, Israel pressed its offensive in central Gaza. During one operation, forces who came under an RPG attack managed to clear the area and seize a RPG launcher, AK-47s, and other military equipment.
In northern Gaza, over the last day, combined air and ground forces engaged and killed several armed terrorists.
At least 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. The number of men, women, children, soldiers and foreigners held captive in Gaza by Hamas is now believed to be 136. Other people remain unaccounted for as Israeli authorities continue to identify bodies and search for human remains.