IDF raises toll of Palestinian terror operatives it has killed in past week to 17

Military names 3 Hamas Nukhba members and 2 PIJ commanders killed in recent Gaza strikes, adding to 12 deaths announced earlier in the week

By Stav Levaton Today, 12:14 am
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Stav Levaton is a military reporter for The Times of Israel

Smoke rises following an IDF airstrike in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, October 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Smoke rises following an IDF airstrike in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, October 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

The Israel Defense Forces said on Saturday that it had killed at least five Palestinian terror operatives in airstrikes in the Gaza Strip over the past week, adding to 12 such deaths announced earlier in the week for a total of 17.

In one statement, the military said it killed several members of Hamas’s elite Nukhba force in a strike on a meeting in Gaza City earlier Saturday, along with a Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) commander in a separate strike.

The military identified two of the Hamas operatives as Muad Mazen Hamza Hassouna and Muhammad Riyad Khader Arahim.

Palestinian media reported that the strike, which took place near Gaza City’s Panda Mall, killed four people and wounded six others.

The PIJ commander, Muhammad Walid Saadi Nakhala, was killed in the Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City, the IDF said.

In a statement earlier on Saturday, the IDF and Shin Bet jointly said that separate strikes in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis area earlier in the week had killed a PIJ company commander who took part in the onslaught of October 7, 2023, along with a member of Hamas’s Nukhba force.

Muhammad Abu Shalouf, a company commander in PIJ’s military wing, was killed in a strike on Wednesday, the military said.

Musa Atef Musa Abu Dan, identified as a Nukhba member, was killed in a separate strike on Friday.

The military said the two recently “advanced attacks against IDF troops and operated to restore the terrorist organizations’ capabilities,” targeting them to “remove the threat.”

In other strikes this week, the IDF said it killed at least 10 Hamas operatives — including a commander involved in holding Israeli hostages captive during the war, several terrorists who took part in the October 7 invasion, and two gunmen plotting attacks from inside a Gaza hospital — as well as two PIJ members.

In all cases, the military said the men were actively planning new attacks or attempting to rebuild the terror groups’ military capabilities.

The military also said that troops struck and killed a suspected terrorist in the northern Gaza Strip on Friday who crossed the “Yellow Line” and approached troops in a threatening manner. The IDF said it struck and killed the man — whom it did not identify — “to remove the threat.”

Over 74,200 people have been killed in Gaza since Hamas’s October 7 attacks, including more than 1,400 since an October 2025 ceasefire, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in the enclave, although the toll does not differentiate between combatants and civilians.

Palestinians walk along a street surrounded by buildings destroyed in Israeli military strikes during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza City, October 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

The Israeli military believes that Hamas’s overall toll is largely accurate, with IDF officials estimating that two to three civilians were killed for every dead terror operative.

The IDF says it has killed over 24,000 combatants in Gaza and another 1,200 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.

Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.

The October 2025 US-backed ceasefire halted major fighting in the shattered territory, but the Israeli military has continued regular strikes aimed at thwarting attacks by Hamas and other Gaza terrorists. Gaza remains bisected into Israeli- and Hamas-controlled areas.

US-led efforts to reach a comprehensive deal that would see Hamas disarm and Israel withdraw have stalled amid disagreements over the process.

Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.

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