Israeli strike kills senior Hamas commander in southern Gaza

Hamas’s armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, announced early Sunday that its Rafah brigade commander, Samir Abu Younis, was killed in an Israeli strike in southern Gaza. The Al-Qassam Brigades said Abu Younis, a member of its General Military Council, was killed in the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis.

Earlier, the Israeli army said that it had carried out a strike alongside the Shin Bet security agency targeting a senior member of Hamas’s armed wing, without identifying the individual. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and Israel’s security agency, the ISA, confirmed in a statement on Telegram that it had "eliminated" Younis.

Describing him as a "central figure among Hamas's senior figures", it said he had "acted with the aim of trying to restore the strength of the brigade and the Hamas terrorist organisation". It added: "Younis directed the brigade's terrorists to advance and carry out terror attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops."

Al-Qassam Brigades wrote on Telegram that Younis had "participated in numerous high-profile operations and resisted enemy incursions", and was "one of the most important commanders involved in planning and overseeing the 7 October attack". It described his killing as a "cowardly assassination".

Younis, 53, had been in his position since 15 September, following the death of the brigade's previous commander, Nael Abu Obeid. He joined Hamas’s armed wing in 1991 and held several senior operational roles before becoming commander. His funeral will be held on Sunday afternoon in Khan Younis, Hamas said.

Nasser Medical Complex had reported that an Israeli drone strike in Al-Mawasi killed one Palestinian and wounded two others. Medics said Abu Younis was killed and others were wounded in an airstrike that targeted him in a street in the Mawasi area of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

According to the figures released by Gaza’s Health Ministry, Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement, which took effect on Oct. 10, 2025, have killed 1,643 Palestinians and wounded 5,964 others as of Saturday. Since October 2023, Israel’s war on Gaza has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians and wounded over 176,000, most of them women and children, according to the ministry. The war has also destroyed around 90% of Gaza’s infrastructure, while the UN estimates reconstruction costs at approximately $71.4 billion.

The Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, when about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others taken hostage, triggered the most recent war in Gaza. Though a ceasefire was reached last October, Israel has continued strikes it says are targeting remaining Hamas militants, which it argues it has the right to do under the terms of the ceasefire agreement. More than 1,640 people have been killed in Gaza since the October 2025 ceasefire, according to the territory’s health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the UN.

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