New Delhi: The internal security service of Israel, Shin Bet, has established a new unit named ‘Nili’ as part of its ongoing effort to track down all Hamas terrorists involved in the October 7 deadly attack, The Jerusalem Post reported.

Shin Bet development comes days after Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip

An acronym in Hebrew, ‘Nili’ means ‘The eternity of Israel will not lie’. The unit is dedicated to hunting down and eliminating every individual who had a role to play in the October 7 attack, which was the deadliest against Israel.

Its primary agenda is to target members of Nukhba – a special commando unit within the Hamas group’s military wing – who infiltrated Israel in the early hours of October 7, and went on a killing spree across various villages and Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) outposts before returning to Gaza, The Jerusalem Post report added.

The members of the new Shin Bet unit function independently of other command and control groups of Shin Bet that are focused on neutralising strike cells and high-ranking terrorists. For this mission, the new unit will cover both field operatives and intelligence personnel, the report said.

The Shin Bet development comes days after Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip killed several key players in the October 7 attack. Last Saturday (October 14), the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said that it had taken out Ali Qadi, a company commander in the Nukhba unit, who led the deadly attack.

The following day, another key Hamas figure, Billal Al Kedra, who spearheaded the lethal raid in Nirim, was eliminated, The Jerusalem Report said.

Last Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike in Gaza reportedly killed Ayman Nofal, head of Hamas’s Central Gaza Brigade. Furthermore, on the same day, reports from Gaza said that as many as 14 people had been killed in a strike on a home belonging to the family of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, including his brother and nephew. Haniyeh resides in Qatar, The Jerusalem Post report said.

More than 5,000 people have so far died on both sides, even as Israel prepares for a coordinated ground offensive in the Gaza Strip to eliminate Hamas terrorists.