IDF says it killed 4 Hamas operatives, including Oct. 7 terrorist, in latest Gaza strikes

Army says terror operatives targeted in past few days include a Hamas sniper, Nukhba commander and another 'involved in advancing attacks on troops'

By Emanuel Fabian
  • Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
 17 October 2026, 10:41 pm
Palestinians inspect the wreckage of a car after it was destroyed in Israeli strike at the Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City on October 13, 2026. (Omar AL-QATTAA/AFP)

Four Hamas operatives, including a terrorist who invaded Israel during the October 7 onslaught, were killed in recent strikes in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military announced Saturday.

A strike on Thursday killed Mahmoud Khaled Mohammed Madhoun, identified by the IDF as a member of Hamas’s elite Nukhba Force who took part in anti-tank missile attacks on troops during the war, the Israel Defense Forces said.

Separate strikes on Friday killed Ubaida Suhail Hamad Murtaja, a Hamas sniper operative, and Adham Khalil Mohammed Marouf, a Hamas terrorist who according to the IDF invaded Israel on October 7, 2023.

The IDF said that another strike on Saturday in the Strip’s south killed Hamas operative Abd al-Jawad Juda.

The four operatives were recently involved in advancing attacks on troops and Israeli civilians, and attempting to restore Hamas’s capabilities, “in systematic violation of the ceasefire,” the military added.

Saturday’s announcement came a day after the army said two other Hamas operatives in Gaza were killed in recent strikes.

 

The IDF identified Maher Walid Omar al-Husseini, the commander of a Nukhba Force cell in Hamas’s military wing who invaded Israel on October 7, and Mohammed Mohammed Abd al-Khalek Hala, a Hamas weapons production officer, as the two operatives killed.

The latest strikes came as the IDF in recent months has increasingly targeted terror operatives in Gaza, including numerous October 7 terrorists, saying they posed a threat to Israeli forces.

According to the military, many of the recent strikes focused on Hamas operatives involved in building up the terror group’s force, as well as secret headquarters and Hamas’s civil control mechanisms in the Strip.

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