IDF says Gaza strikes killed four Hamas members, one an October 7 attacker

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has announced that four more Hamas operatives were killed in recent airstrikes in the northern Gaza Strip, among them a member of the group's Nukhba Force who the military says crossed into Israel during the October 7, 2023 attack. The Times of Israel reported the announcement, which came on top of an earlier IDF statement about two other Nukhba operatives killed in strikes on Saturday.

According to the military, two of the four were killed in separate strikes on Saturday and two in separate strikes on October 22. In its own post on X, the IDF said all four had been advancing attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers, and accused them of working to rebuild Hamas's capabilities "in systematic violation of the ceasefire."

Who the military says was killed

The IDF identified the four men by name and role. The details below are the military's account, as relayed by Emanuel Fabian, the Times of Israel's military correspondent.

• Nabil Hamad, described as heading a department in what the IDF calls Hamas's "recruitment apparatus." He was killed in a Saturday strike.
• Mohannad Nader Mahmoud Dahdouh, described as a sniper commander, also killed on Saturday in a separate strike.
• Wael Naif Fahmi Muslim, described as a Nukhba Force member who took part in the invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023. He was killed on October 22.
• Arafat Kamal Muhammad Ar'air, described as commander of a rocket-launching squad, also killed on October 22.

In its post, the IDF added that the recruitment department head had been directly involved in strengthening and rebuilding the Hamas military wing inside Gaza.

What the Nukhba Force is

The Nukhba Force is described in the reports as an elite unit of Hamas. Israeli military statements frequently single out Nukhba members because of their role in the October 7 assault, when gunmen broke through into southern Israel. Identifying a target as an October 7 participant is a recurring feature of IDF announcements about strikes in Gaza.

The earlier announcement referenced by the Times of Israel concerned two Nukhba operatives killed on Saturday, one of whom the IDF said had entered Kibbutz Nir Oz during the October 7 attack. A kibbutz is a collective agricultural community, a form of settlement that dates back to Israel's early history.

The ceasefire backdrop

The military's language places these strikes within an existing ceasefire in Gaza. The IDF's position, as stated in this announcement, is that the men it targeted were themselves violating that truce by planning attacks and working to restore Hamas's military strength. The reports do not set out the terms of the ceasefire or describe when it began.

Announcements of this kind, naming individual operatives and describing their roles, have become a regular pattern in IDF communications. In this case the military released the names well after at least two of the strikes: the October 22 killings were disclosed alongside the more recent Saturday strikes.

How the information was released

The announcement was made by the IDF directly on X, and in Hebrew by the military's Hebrew-language account, according to an embedded post in the Times of Israel live blog. The Times of Israel and its military correspondent relayed the same details in English. All four reports draw on the single IDF statement; none contains independent information about the strikes.

What the reports do not say

The reports do not say where in northern Gaza the strikes took place, beyond the general region. They give no information on whether anyone else was killed or injured in any of the four strikes. They do not include any response from Hamas or from Gaza authorities confirming or disputing the identities or roles of those named.

The IDF has not published, in this material, evidence supporting its statement that the four were planning attacks, nor details of what attacks it says they were advancing. The reports also do not explain why the October 22 strikes were announced only now, and they do not describe the terms of the ceasefire the military says was being violated.