Hamas smuggling unit chief killed in Khan Younis airstrike, IDF and Shin Bet says

The chief of Hamas’s smuggling unit was killed in an airstrike in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis on Tuesday, the IDF and Shin Bet announce.

Yahya Fathi Abd al-Qader Abu Shaar worked in recent years to smuggle weapons and other military equipment, which was used by Hamas, including during the terror group’s October 7, 2023, onslaught, the IDF says.

The IDF releases footage of the strike.

Footage released by the IDF on April 17, 2025, shows a strike on the chief of Hamas’s smuggling unit in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis. (Israel Defense Forces)

The military says another strike in Khan Younis last week killed a prominent member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Mazen Ibraheem Mahfouz Farah had directed “significant” terror attacks in Israel over the past two years, and especially in recent months, according to the IDF.

In both strikes, the IDF says it took numerous steps to mitigate civilian harm, including the use of a “precision munition, aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence.”

Additionally, the IDF says that some 110 targets were struck by the Israeli Air Force in Gaza over the past two days.

The targets included cells of terror operatives and infrastructure used by Hamas and other terror groups, according to the military.

Last night, a building belonging to Hamas’s naval force in central Gaza’s Nuseirat, which the IDF says was used to plan attacks on Israel, was struck.