Hamas terrorist behind 2003 shooting that killed MK’s husband slain in Gaza airstrike, says Israel

By Emanuel Fabian

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10 September 2026, 8:50 pm

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Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent

An explosion erupts following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, September 9, 2026. (AP/Jehad Alshrafi)

Israeli security bodies confirm the killing of a top member of the Hamas terror group, responsible for numerous deadly terror attacks, in a strike in Gaza City yesterday.

Yesterday, Hamas said Farah Hamed, a “commander and fighter” in the terror group’s military wing and a member of the “Military Council of the al-Qassam Brigades in the West Bank,” was killed in a strike in Gaza City’s Sheikh Ijlin neighborhood.

The strike killing Hamed was carried out by the Israel Police’s elite Gideonim unit (Unit 33), in a joint operation with the Shin Bet and IDF, the three bodies say.

Israeli security bodies confirm the killing of a top member of the Hamas terror group, responsible for numerous deadly terror attacks, in a strike in Gaza City yesterday.

Yesterday, Hamas said Farah Hamed, a "commander and fighter" in the terror group's military wing, and a… pic.twitter.com/fQRlGcBnDa

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) September 10, 2026

Hamed was a member of the “Silwad cell,” which operated during the Second Intifada and carried out a series of deadly shooting attacks in the West Bank.

According to the Shin Bet, Hamed was involved in a November 2002 shooting at Rimonim Junction, in which Esther Galia Attiya was killed; a June 2003 shooting on Route 60 in which Zvi (Howard) Goldstein was killed; an August 2003 shooting which critically wounded current Otzma Yehudit MK Limor Son Har-Melech, and killed her husband, Shalom Har-Melech; and an October 2003 shooting in Ein Yabrud in which three soldiers were killed: Sgt. Elad Polak, Sgt. Roi Yaakov Solomon and Staff Sgt. Erez Idan.

The Shin Bet says Hamed was a “senior figure” in Hamas’s so-called West Bank Headquarters, a unit involved in recruiting terrorists and advancing attacks against Israel from or within the West Bank, and that he also took part in fighting against IDF troops during the war in Gaza.

Since he was released to Gaza in 2011 as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange deal, the Shin Bet says he “continued to belong to Hamas’s military wing and was involved in recruiting and directing the organization to advance attacks” in the West Bank.