The IDF has acknowledged that it did not kill Haitham Hawajri, commander of Hamas’s Shati Battalion, in December 2023, following reports from Palestinian media that Hawajri was among those who handed over hostage Keith Siegel to the Red Cross today.
In a statement, the IDF explained that after targeting Hawajri on December 3, 2023, both the IDF and Shin Bet initially assessed with high confidence that he had been eliminated, leading to an official announcement.
"After further examination, it emerged that the intelligence finding on which the Intelligence Directorate and Shin Bet relied was incorrect, and the terrorist was not eliminated in this strike," the military stated.
This is not the first such correction. Last month, the IDF acknowledged that it had not killed the commander of Hamas’s Beit Hanoun Battalion as previously claimed. Similarly, in October, the IDF revised an earlier statement regarding the elimination of Hamas’s Tel Sultan Battalion commander, clarifying that he was actually killed in a separate strike.