Israel kills terrorist involved in Oct. 7 kidnapping in Gaza airstrike

Israel took out a terrorist during an airstrike earlier this month who was involved in the abduction of an Israeli man on Oct. 7, 2023, authorities said Tuesday. 

The strike, which occurred in Gaza on Aug. 10, killed Jihad Kamal Salem Najjar, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, announced. 

“A small part of my closure happened today. Thank you to the IDF, the Shin Bet, and everyone who took part in the elimination of one of the terrorists who kidnapped me on October 7,” Yarden Bibas said in a statement provided by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. “Thanks to you, he will not be able to harm anyone else.”

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“Please take care of yourselves, heroes. I am waiting for full closure with the return of my friends David and Ariel, and the remaining 48 hostages,” he added. 

Najjar was involved in the invasion of the Kibbutz Nir Oz, one of the hardest hit during the deadly Oct. 7 attacks, where Bibas was kidnapped. Bibas’ family was kidnapped separately and was eventually murdered while in captivity. 

He spent 480 days as a hostage before he was released in January. His wife, Shiri, and their two young children, Ariel and Kfir, were killed before their bodies were returned to Israel. 

While in captivity, Bibas was forced to make a hostage film in which he was seen breaking down as Hamas claimed his wife and children had been killed. 

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Hamas often uses hostage videos as part of what the IDF calls “psychological terror.”

Upon his release, Bibas’ family said that “a quarter of our heart has returned to us after 15 long months… Yarden has returned home, but the home remains incomplete.”

In the aftermath of Hamas’ attack, the Bibas family became a symbol of the terror group’s cruelty. Video footage of Shiri Bibas holding her two red-headed children in her arms went viral across the globe. 

In April, Israel said it had killed Mohammed Hassan Mohammed Awad, a senior commander in the Palestinian Mujahideen terrorist organization and who helped lead “several” attacks on the Nir Oz kibbutz.