IDF says it killed two senior Hamas leaders in Gaza strikes

The IDF and Shin Bet announce that another two top Hamas officials were killed in airstrikes in the Gaza Strip.

One is named by the military as Rashid Jahjouh, the head of Hamas’s “general security mechanism.” Jahjouh had replaced Sami Odeh, who was killed, along with other top Hamas officials, in an Israeli airstrike in July 2024.

Another top Hamas official killed in a recent airstrike in Gaza is named by the IDF as Amin Eslaiah, the head of the security mechanism in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis.

The security mechanism, according to the military, is a clandestine Hamas body responsible for uncovering “collaborators” with Israel; security for top Hamas officials and assets in Gaza and outside of the Strip; and oppression of opponents to Hamas’s rule.

The mechanism is also charged with building intelligence pictures for top Hamas officials on which they could make decisions, the IDF says.

Jahjouh, as part of his role, was also responsible for Hamas’s internal propaganda.

Separately, the military says that a strike killed a prominent Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative involved in smuggling weapons to the terror group.

Ismail Abd al-Alal, according to the IDF, “led most of the weapon smuggling efforts for the PIJ in recent years.”