Israel says airstrike in Khan Younis killed Hamas sniper Tamer Hamaida

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Israel Security Agency, known as the Shin Bet or ISA, said on Friday that a joint airstrike in the Khan Younis area of the southern Gaza Strip had killed Tamer Hamaida, whom they identified as a sniper in Hamas. According to the joint announcement issued by the IDF spokesperson, the strike took place on Thursday, and Hamaida had been planning attacks against Israeli troops.

The military said Hamaida had pushed forward sniper and other attacks on soldiers and on Israeli civilians over the course of the war, and had worked to rebuild the group's capabilities. The Times of Israel reported the army's account, describing Hamaida as a sniper operative in the military wing of Hamas and saying the strike was carried out overnight.

Who carried out the strike

The announcement came jointly from two bodies. The IDF is Israel's military. The Shin Bet, which the IDF refers to in English by its formal initials ISA, is Israel's internal security service, responsible for intelligence on armed groups in Gaza and the West Bank and frequently involved in identifying targets for strikes. Joint statements of this kind usually signal that the intelligence behind a strike came at least partly from the Shin Bet.

Hebrew outlets including N12 and Ynet carried the same core details: the man killed was a Hamas sniper, the strike was from the air, and it hit the Khan Younis area. The Hebrew word used throughout these reports for the killing, a verb that translates as "eliminated", is the standard Israeli military term for a targeted killing.

Where Khan Younis is

Khan Younis is one of the main cities of the southern Gaza Strip, lying north of Rafah, the area along Gaza's border with Egypt. The Palestinian reports relayed in Israel placed the strike in the southwest of the Khan Younis area, close to the boundary with Rafah.

The ceasefire context

The strike took place during a ceasefire. In its post on X, the IDF said Hamaida had been working to restore what it called terror capabilities in breach of the ceasefire, presenting the strike as a response to that activity.

News.co.il, citing the military's statement, added that Israeli security forces are positioned in the area in line with the agreement and will keep acting to remove any immediate threat. That phrasing reflects how Israel has framed strikes in Gaza while the truce holds: as action against specific threats rather than a return to full fighting. The reports do not describe any Hamas response to the strike.

A different description from Palestinian reports

Not every account matches the military's. The Hebrew-language Telegram channel Abu Ali Express, relaying Palestinian reports, said an Israeli strike had hit a tent belonging to the a-Zatma family in southwest Khan Younis, killing one person and wounding three. The channel first named the dead man as Abu Hamza a-Zatma, then posted an update identifying him as Tamer Hamaida and describing him as a Hamas policeman.

The IDF describes Hamaida as a sniper in Hamas; the Palestinian reports cited by Abu Ali Express describe him as a member of the Hamas police. These accounts are not reconciled in any of the material, and this article does not attempt to settle which is correct.

What the reports do not say

• The military did not publish evidence for its claim that Hamaida was planning attacks, or specify which attacks he is said to have carried out or advanced during the war.
• The IDF statements do not mention any wounded or the target being a tent. The figure of three wounded comes only from the Palestinian reports relayed by Abu Ali Express.
• No report gives Hamaida's age, his rank, or how long he is said to have served in Hamas.
• The reports do not give an exact time for the strike beyond Thursday night, or a precise location beyond the Khan Younis area.
• None of the reports includes a statement from Hamas or from Gaza health authorities.