In a precision airstrike carried out Sunday night in Gaza City’s volatile Shejaiya neighborhood, the Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet (Internal Security Agency) eliminated Muhammad al-‘Ajlah, the latest commander of Hamas’s Shejaiya Battalion—marking the fifth senior leader of that battalion neutralized since the war began, and the third in two weeks since operations in Gaza resumed in early April.
Al-‘Ajlah, who had only recently taken command following the death of his predecessor Haitham Khalil on April 9, had previously served as the head of the battalion’s combat support company. According to an official IDF statement, he played a central role in supplying weapons and coordinating terror attacks targeting Israeli civilians and IDF troops. His elimination represents a major operational blow to Hamas’s tactical command network in eastern Gaza.
“Al-‘Ajlah was directly responsible for arming terrorists who executed deadly attacks on Israeli soil,” the statement emphasized. “His removal severely disrupts the battalion’s ability to regenerate and rearm.”
🔴ELIMINATED: Commander of Hamas’ Shejaiya Battalion
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) April 15, 2025
Muhammad al-‘Ajlah served as the commander of a combat support company in the Shejaiya battalion throughout the war and was eliminated in a precise strike on Sunday night. He was responsible for arming the battalion's… pic.twitter.com/nssidzs9Qh
The strike that killed al-‘Ajlah was conducted with advanced intelligence coordination between the IDF and the ISA, and in line with Israel’s ongoing efforts to surgically dismantle Hamas’s military leadership. The IDF noted that extensive measures were taken to avoid civilian casualties in the Shejaiya neighborhood, which has been heavily fortified by Hamas over the years and used as a launch site for terror operations.
Al-‘Ajlah’s death follows the recent eliminations of:
- Haitham Khalil (April 9), struck in an earlier IDF operation;
- Jamil Omar Jamil Wadiya (March), who served as battalion head after Khalil's predecessor;
- Wissam Farhat, killed on December 2, 2023; and
- Emad Qariqa, eliminated just one week after Farhat.
This systematic decapitation of Hamas’s Shejaiya command structure is part of a broader Israeli military strategy to cripple the terror organization’s core battalions in Gaza and prevent them from reorganizing or launching future attacks.
The IDF has once again killed the new commander of Hamas' Shejaiya battalion.
— FJ (@Natsecjeff) April 15, 2025
The previous commander of the battalion was killed past week.
This is the fifth commander of the same Hamas battalion which has been killed since the start of the war. https://t.co/0A1E73HLmf
The Shejaiya Battalion, notorious for its use of human shields and underground warfare tactics, has long been one of Hamas’s most entrenched terror cells in Gaza. Its command center lies in the densely populated eastern sector of Gaza City, where Hamas embeds its forces within civilian infrastructure—a war crime that complicates Israel’s counterterror operations.
Despite those challenges, the IDF says its targeted strikes have succeeded in significantly degrading Hamas’s ability to wage war and have forced the terror group into a constant state of retreat and reorganization.
