Demonstrators light a bonfire during a protest demanding a cease-fire deal and the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip after the deaths of six hostages in the Palestinian territory, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Demonstrators light a bonfire during a protest demanding a cease-fire deal and the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip after the deaths of six hostages in the Palestinian territory, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
The Israeli military says it has killed a Hamas militant who appeared in a widely viewed video from Oct. 7, where he was seen drinking from a bottle of cola in front of two children wounded in a grenade attack that had just killed their father.
The military on Tuesday identified the militant as Ahmed Fozi Wadia, a commander in a Hamas commando battalion and a member of a paragliding unit. It said Wadia flew into the community of Netiv HaAsara on a paraglider before launching the attack on civilians there.
In a video of the attack on the Taasa family home, which was screened for journalists, diplomats and lawmakers around the world by Israeli officials, Gil Taasa is seen running to a shelter with his two boys when a grenade is thrown in. Taasa jumps on the grenade and was killed, and his sons were wounded. The militant, now identified by the military as Wadia, is then seen standing over the wounded boys and drinking cola from their fridge.
The military said aircraft struck a compound in Gaza City on Saturday where Hamas militants were operating, killing eight militants, including Wadia.
The military said the compound that was hit was near the Al-Ahli hospital but said the hospital itself was not hit. The Health Ministry in Gaza reported a strike on the hospital grounds on Saturday and said it killed three people.
Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people and took 250 hostage in their Oct. 7 attack, which triggered the war in Gaza which is now in its 11th month and has killed more than 40,000 people, according to Gaza health officials.
