AN IDF commander who was noted for heroic conduct after saving civilians in the October 7 massacre has been killed in Gaza.
Lieutenant Colonel Salman Habka, 33, is dead following a clash with Hamas fighters in the northern Gaza Strip.
He becomes the highest ranking Israeli officer to have been killed since the beginning of the war with Hamas.
Lt. Col. Habka is also the 17th Israeli casualty in Gaza since the IDF launched their full-scale ground invasion on October 27.
Four days into their storm on Gaza, Israel said its forces had killed “dozens” of Hamas fighters inside their sprawling network of tunnels and underground compounds.
Israeli troops made “significant progress” in their ground offensive as they continued advancing deeper into the besieged enclave.
And on Thursday, it was announced that Hamas’ missile commander had been wiped out following a second strike on the Jabalia refuge camp.
Israeli forces said Muhammad A’sar the head of Hamas’ anti-tank missile unit was “eliminated” in a strike of the Gazan refugee camp dubbed a “terrorist stronghold.”
But at the expense of that is the death of one of their highest ranking soldiers in Lt. Col. Habka, who was credited as the officer who “turned the tide of battle” at Be’eri Kibbutz.
According to IDSF, Habka transferred some of his troops from Hebron to Tze’elim, close to the trouble spot, after receiving a message that something serious was happening at the border with Gaza.
Soldiers of the 53rd Battalion in the 188th Armored Brigade were soon supplying the troops in the field with machine guns and six of their tanks.
The teams were distributed among three kibbutzim — Be’eri, Kfar Aza, and Nahal Oz – before Habka sent another detachment to the Erez Crossing.
Habka arrived at the kibbutz with two tanks and joined a detachment of paratroopers at the site, where they managed to push back the Hamas terrorists and gain the upper hand.
But Habka’s decision to separate the tanks proved to be a brave, well-conceived tactic, as his crews repelled another attack that came through the Erez Crossing and killed the terrorists at the border.
Hamas chief Ghazi Hamad told Iranian TV last week the group will not stop until Israel is annihilated, however.
His threat, circulated online, made a mockery of calls for a ceasefire in Gaza from dozens of Labour MPs.
And the desperate parents of 32 child hostages snatched by Hamas have pleaded for the terror group to release them.
The petrified youngsters are being held underground in the 311-mile network of tunnels dubbed the Gaza Metro as Israel battles to crush the jihadists and bring them home.
