JERUSALEM (VINnews) – The Israel Defense Forces said Thursday it has confirmed that a Hamas operative killed last week in an airstrike in the Gaza Strip abducted Israeli hostage Mia Schem during the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.

Ibrahim Abu Sakkar, a Hamas paramedic in the terror group’s Military Medical Services, was struck and killed by the IDF on April 29. The military said he had planned an imminent attack on Israeli troops and led multiple assaults on soldiers throughout the ongoing war.

“Following intelligence analysis, it can be confirmed that the terrorist Abu Sakkar infiltrated Israeli territory during the brutal October 7 massacre and participated in the abduction of Mia Schem from the Mefalsim area,” the IDF said in a statement.

Schem, who was attending the Nova music festival near the Gaza border when Hamas attacked, was taken into Gaza and held hostage for nearly two months. She was released and returned to Israel as part of a hostage deal with Hamas in late November 2023.

The confirmation comes more than two and a half years after the massacre, in which Hamas and other Gaza terrorists killed approximately 1,200 people in southern Israel and abducted 251 others. Roughly 50 hostages remain in Gaza, including the bodies of slain captives.

Abu Sakkar’s role in Schem’s abduction adds to the growing list of Oct. 7 perpetrators eliminated by Israeli forces in Gaza. The IDF has said it continues to pursue all those involved in the attacks.