Abu Obeid was involved in holding Lt. Hadar Goldin after the IDF officer was killed and his body abducted by Hamas during Operation Protective Edge.
By United with Israel Staff
A senior Hamas commander eliminated by Israel last week was involved in holding IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians captive for years, including slain Lt. Hadar Goldin and former hostage Staff Sgt. Nimrod Cohen, the IDF and Shin Bet revealed Saturday.
The new details about Nael Abu Obeid, commander of Hamas’s Rafah Brigade, emerged following what the security agencies described as an extensive intelligence investigation into his activities.
In 2014, while serving as deputy commander of the Rafah Brigade, Abu Obeid was involved in holding Goldin after the IDF officer was killed and his body abducted by Hamas during Operation Protective Edge.
Goldin was killed on August 1, 2014, during a Hamas attack in Rafah shortly after a humanitarian ceasefire took effect. His remains were subsequently held by Hamas in Gaza for more than a decade, making his return a longstanding priority for his family and successive Israeli governments.
Abu Obeid later rose through Hamas’s ranks to command the Rafah Brigade, giving him a senior position in the terror group’s military apparatus in southern Gaza.
According to the IDF and Shin Bet, his involvement in Hamas’s hostage operations continued during the current war.
Abu Obeid was involved in holding several hostages, including Cohen, who was kept in underground infrastructure in the Rafah area.
Cohen, an IDF soldier serving near the Gaza border, was abducted during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel and taken into Gaza.
The revelation further connects Abu Obeid to Hamas’s hostage-taking operations spanning more than a decade, from Goldin’s abduction in 2014 through the hostages seized on October 7.
Abu Obeid was eliminated last week in the Gaza Strip as Israel has continued targeting senior Hamas commanders and terrorists involved in the October 7 massacre and efforts to rebuild the organization’s military capabilities.
The IDF and Shin Bet described his elimination as an “important closing of the circle” and said Israeli security forces would continue operating against terrorists who participated in the October 7 attacks.
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