IDF says it killed 4 Hamas men in Gaza; Palestinian media call one a journalist

Update, 17 October, 23:08 Israel time

Several Palestinian media outlets describe Ubaida Suhail Hamad Murtaja, one of the four men the IDF says it killed and whom it called a Hamas sniper, as a journalist. Joe Truzman, an analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), wrote that outlets including Shehab, Ikhwan Online and the Palestinian Information Center use that description for him.

Truzman said his own review of Murtaja's online presence pointed to both a media role and membership in a militant group, and he posted images he said supported this. He framed the case as another instance of the Israeli military killing a man it identifies as a Hamas member whom Palestinian media present as a journalist. The IDF's statement on the strikes does not mention any media work by Murtaja, and the military has not, in the material available, responded to the description.

A fuller report from The Times of Israel repeats the military's account of the four strikes and the names released, without adding detail on locations, casualties or a Hamas response.

The story as first reported

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Israel's military, said it killed four members of Hamas's military wing in separate strikes in several parts of the Gaza Strip over recent days. According to the IDF spokesperson, one of the four had crossed into Israel during the Hamas-led attack of October 7.

The Times of Israel reported the names the military released. It said a strike on Thursday killed Mahmoud Khaled Mohammed Madhoun, whom the IDF described as a Nukhba Force member involved in firing anti-tank missiles at soldiers during the war. Strikes the following day killed Ubaida Suhail Hamad Murtaja, described as a sniper, and Adham Khalil Mohammed Marouf, who the IDF says entered Israel on October 7, 2023. A further strike in the southern part of the Strip, on the day the announcement was made, killed a Hamas operative the military named as Abd al-Jawad Juda.

What the military says the four were doing

In its statement posted on X, the IDF said the men had been pushing forward plans for attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers and had tried to rebuild Hamas's capacity to fight. It framed this as a breach of the truce, describing their activity as being "in systematic violation of the ceasefire," and said the strikes were carried out to remove the threat it said they posed.

The Hebrew-language outlet News.co.il relayed the same account from the military spokesperson, as did alerts from Ynet and N12, two of Israel's largest news organisations. All of these reports rest on the IDF's announcement; none describes separate reporting from the scene.

Who the Nukhba are

Nukhba, an Arabic word meaning "elite", is the name Israel uses for Hamas's commando units. The Times of Israel referred to it as the group's elite force. Israeli officials and media have long associated Nukhba fighters with the cross-border assault on southern Israeli communities and army positions on October 7, 2023, which began the war in Gaza. Israeli outlets routinely highlight when someone the military kills is identified as having taken part in that attack, and the Hebrew reports here led with that detail.

Hamas is the Islamist movement that has controlled the Gaza Strip, the coastal territory bordering Israel and Egypt. Its armed wing is the body the IDF says all four men belonged to.

Strikes during a ceasefire

The military's statement places these strikes within a period of ceasefire, and it presents them as a response to violations of that arrangement rather than as a resumption of full-scale fighting. The reports do not set out the terms of the truce or describe where the lines between the two sides currently run. Announcements of this kind, in which the IDF names individuals it says were killed in targeted strikes and accuses them of planning attacks, have been a recurring feature of reporting from Gaza.

A small difference in the accounts

The reports agree on the names and on the basic sequence, but they describe the timing slightly differently. The Times of Israel liveblog said two of the men were killed "yesterday", while Emanuel Fabian, the paper's military correspondent, wrote on his own channel that those strikes took place on Friday. Given that the announcement was published on a Saturday, the two descriptions point to the same day. The IDF's own English statement, as captured in the material available to us, was cut off before it listed every name and date.

What the reports do not say

• None of the reports gives the exact locations of the strikes beyond the southern Strip for the final one, or describes the type of strike used.
• There is no word on whether anyone else was killed or injured in any of the four strikes.
• The reports do not include any response from Hamas or from health authorities in Gaza, and there is no independent confirmation of the identities or roles of those killed.
• The IDF did not publish, in the material available, specific evidence for its claim that the men were preparing attacks or rebuilding Hamas's capabilities.
• The reports do not say what role, beyond crossing into Israel, Marouf is alleged to have played on October 7.