IDF says strike in northern Gaza killed Hamas commander who held hostages

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Israel Security Agency (ISA) say an Israeli strike in the northern Gaza Strip last week killed a commander in Hamas' military wing whom they accuse of taking part in holding Israeli hostages. In a joint announcement published by the IDF spokesperson, the military named him as Muhammad Hamad Muhammad Gabain and said the strike was carried out on Tuesday of the previous week.

According to the IDF, Gabain was involved during the war in keeping the following people captive in Gaza: Ziv Berman, Gali Berman, Eitan Mor, Liri Albag, Agam Berger, Matan Angrest, Omri Miran, Keith Siegel and Alon Ohel. The military also said on its X account that he had recently been advancing attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians and working to rebuild Hamas' capabilities, which it described as a systematic violation of the ceasefire. It said the strike was meant to remove the threat it says he posed.

Who announced the strike

The announcement came jointly from the IDF and the ISA. The ISA is Israel's domestic security service, widely known by its Hebrew acronym Shin Bet. It handles intelligence on Palestinian armed groups and works with the military on targeted strikes in Gaza, supplying information on the whereabouts of wanted figures.

Emanuel Fabian, military correspondent for The Times of Israel, relayed the announcement on his Telegram channel and on X, attributing the details to the military and the Shin Bet. His reports spell the commander's surname Ghabain and repeat the IDF's account that he had lately been promoting attacks on Israelis and helping restore Hamas' abilities. The information in these reports originates with the Israeli security establishment rather than with an independent source on the ground.

Differences between the reports

A later post by Joe Truzman, an analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a Washington think tank, gives details that do not fully match the official announcement. Truzman wrote that the IDF had confirmed killing a man he named as Muhammad Khader Ghbayin, and placed the strike in the al-Tuffah neighbourhood about 4 days before his post.

The divergences are worth setting out plainly:

• Name: the IDF gives the middle names as Hamad Muhammad, while Truzman gives Khader. The surname appears as Gabain, Ghabain and Ghbayin across the reports, which may reflect different transliterations from Arabic.
• Location: the IDF and Fabian say northern Gaza without naming a neighbourhood. Only Truzman names al-Tuffah.
• Timing: the IDF says Tuesday of last week; Truzman says roughly four days earlier. The reports were published on the same day, so the two descriptions are close but are not stated identically.

It is not clear from the material whether the difference in the middle name is an error in one account or reflects how the man was known locally.

The wider context

Truzman presented the strike as one example of a continuing Israeli campaign, nearly three years on from the Hamas-led attack of October 7, to locate Hamas operatives who played a part in the ensuing war and go after them. Hostages taken into Gaza in that attack were held by Hamas through the conflict, and the IDF's announcement links this commander to the captivity of nine of them.

The IDF's statement also refers to a ceasefire and accuses Gabain of breaching it by pushing forward attacks and helping Hamas rebuild. The reports do not describe the terms of that ceasefire.

What the reports do not say

None of the reports states the current condition or whereabouts of the hostages named in the IDF announcement, or at what stage of the war Gabain was involved in holding each of them. The material gives no detail of how the strike was carried out, whether anyone else was killed or wounded, or whether the target was in a building, a vehicle or elsewhere. There is no response from Hamas in any of the reports, and no independent confirmation of the death beyond the Israeli announcement and those relaying it. The reports also do not explain why the strike was announced several days after it took place, or which spelling of the commander's full name is correct.