2 reported killed in northern Gaza as IDF says drone strike targets terrorists
UAE condemns recent separate strike on hospital targeting senior Hamas commander; IDF says 10 operatives, including Oct. 7 terrorists, killed over past week
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Two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike Saturday in the north of Gaza City, according to local media reports.
Palestinian media and officials reported that the strike killed Momen Rizk al-Shandaghli and Mohammed Jihad Omar, and wounded several others.
The Israel Defense Forces told The Times of Israel that it targeted two terror operatives in the area, and the results of the strike were under review.
The drone struck two Palestinians walking down a street in Jabalia, on the northern edge of Gaza City, said Mohamed Abu Selmiya, director of Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, where the casualties were taken.
Israeli airstrikes have continued in Gaza more than a year after Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire deal in the war that started when the Palestinian terror group led a devastating invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023. The IDF says the strikes target terrorists that pose a threat to troops or are involved in Hamas’s efforts to rearm.
Also on Saturday, the United Arab Emirates strongly condemned an Israeli airstrike on Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza on Thursday that targeted a senior Hamas commander and reportedly killed six people, including a surgeon, and wounded 20.
In a statement, the UAE Foreign Ministry called the strike on the medical complex in Khan Younis “a blatant violation of international humanitarian law,” warning that continued Israeli military escalation exacerbates the “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza.
Abu Dhabi stressed the need to protect medical facilities, “safeguard civilian lives, and ensure the immediate, safe, and unhindered delivery of humanitarian relief and medical aid to the Gaza Strip,” while calling on the international community “to intensify all regional and international efforts to find a serious political horizon that achieves comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution.”
The IDF said at the time that Thursday’s strike targeted Muhammad Abu Ismail, commander of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade, and other terrorists it said were using the hospital as a military headquarters. The IDF said it took measures to minimize civilian casualties and had repeatedly warned against Hamas activity at the hospital.
There has yet to be any confirmation from the IDF or Hamas that Abu Ismail was killed in the strike.
Though hospitals are protected sites under international law, they can lose that protection if used for military purposes. Israel has repeatedly offered evidence of Palestinian terror groups’ regular use of Gazan medical facilities as bases of operations due to their protected status.
The UAE has had diplomatic ties with Israel since signing the Abraham Accords in 2020.
On Friday, the military said that it had struck and killed more than 10 terror operatives in the Gaza Strip over the past week, including some who participated in the October 7 onslaught.
???? ELIMINATED: 10+ terrorists in several strikes across Gaza over the past week. Additionally, a weapons manufacturing workshop was dismantled.
Among those eliminated were 2 Hamas terrorists who infiltrated Israel during the October 7 Massacre and a terrorist involved in… pic.twitter.com/TOwvF2nqHx
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 13, 2026
The military named one as Muhammad Atta Zaki Qishawi, a member of Hamas’s elite Nukhba Force who invaded Israel on October 7, 2023.
Another was identified as Ali Naim Ayesh Abu Osai, a member of the Saif al-Islam terror faction, whom the IDF said was involved in manufacturing weapons for Hamas. The workshop where he operated, belonging to Hamas’s weapons production headquarters, was destroyed in a strike, according to the military.
The IDF identified a third operative as Hani Ibrahim Said Khudari, a commander of a supply platoon in Hamas’s Sabra Battalion in Gaza City, who also infiltrated Israeli territory during the October 7 onslaught.
The army said the operatives were all advancing attacks on troops and Israeli civilians and acted to restore Hamas’s capabilities, “in systematic violation of the ceasefire.”
Israel in recent months has increasingly targeted operatives in Gaza, including numerous terrorists who took part in the October 7 assault, saying they posed a threat to Israeli forces.
According to the military, many of the recent strikes have focused on Hamas operatives involved in building up the terror group’s force and civil control mechanisms in the Strip.
Implementation of US President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza has stalled, with Hamas refusing to disarm and Israel refusing to withdraw from any part of Gaza until that condition is met.
At least 1,600 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, maintains detailed records and is seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts. It does not distinguish between civilians and fighters in its toll but claims women and children make up around half the dead.
The Times of Israel Community.