Israel Says Navy Intelligence Led It to Hamas's Naval Police Deputy

The Israeli Air Force killed Iyad Abu Yousef, the deputy commander of Hamas’s naval police, in what the Israel Defense Forces described as a “precision strike on the central camps”, according to a statement issued through the Press Service of Israel on 22 September 2025. The strike was carried out under intelligence guidance from the Israel Navy and the military’s Intelligence Department.

Abu Yousef took part in the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, the military said, and during the fighting in the Gaza Strip planned ambushes against Israeli forces and was involved in securing the organisation’s assets. “His elimination constitutes a significant damage to the capabilities of Hamas’s naval police, which are used to gather intelligence on our forces and enforce maritime control for the organization’s military wing,” the IDF said. The Times of Israel reported the same announcement the same day and placed the strike in central Gaza.

What Hamas’s naval police is

The name suggests a coastguard, but the Israeli military describes it as part of the armed wing. Ynetnews, reporting the same killing, quoted the military spokesperson saying the force “gathers intelligence on our forces and enforces maritime control on behalf of Hamas’ military wing”. In a later statement about a different strike, reported by the Times of Israel in June 2026, the IDF said the naval police “operates under Hamas’s military wing and advances and directs terror attacks against IDF troops and the State of Israel”. Hamas has not published its own account of the unit’s role.

The operation the strike belonged to

The Israel Navy said that since the start of Operation Gideon’s Chariots II it had been working to destroy the infrastructure and key personnel of Hamas’s maritime police. That operation was the second phase of Israel’s 2025 ground campaign in Gaza. FDD’s Long War Journal reported on 14 September 2025 that Gideon’s Chariots II followed a first phase that ran from May to July 2025 and left the Israeli military in control of roughly 70 per cent of the Gaza Strip, and that by early September Israeli forces held about 40 per cent of Gaza City itself, with around 300,000 residents having moved south.

How the campaign ended

Three weeks after the strike the war stopped. FDD’s Long War Journal reported that a United States-brokered ceasefire took effect on 13 October 2025, under which Hamas released the 20 remaining living hostages and began returning the bodies of those who had died in captivity.

What the statement did not say

The IDF gave no precise location beyond “the central camps”, no time for the strike, and no figure for anyone else killed or wounded. It did not publish the intelligence behind its description of Abu Yousef’s role on 7 October 2023, and no Hamas response or independent confirmation of his death was included in the announcement.