From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, February 24, 2026
Islamic Jihad confirms senior operative, a Doctors Without Borders staffer, was killed by Israel in 2024
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleEmanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad confirms that one of its high-ranking operatives, named by Doctors Without Borders as a staffer, was killed by Israel in 2024.
The medical organization — known by its French acronym MSF — has repeatedly denied that it employed anyone “involved in military activities,” despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
After the killing of MSF staffer Fadi al-Wadiya in June 2024, the IDF published a photograph of him wearing a Palestinian Islamic Jihad uniform and identified him as a rocket expert.
In a series of posts today, Islamic Jihad names several top commanders killed by Israel during the war.
One of them is al-Wadiya, whom Islamic Jihad identifies as the deputy head of its military manufacturing unit.
Fadi Jihad Mohammed al-Wadiyya (ID# 802854323, age 33) , a physiotherapist working for Doctors Without Borders, was ID'd by the IDF as a PIJ member shortly after he was killed in a June 2024 airstrike. Today, PIJ confirmed that al-Wadiyya was the deputy head of their military… pic.twitter.com/cAeBGVtgeG
— Gabriel Epstein (@GabrielEpsteinX) February 24, 2026
Also listed is Mahdi al-Mamluk, deputy head of the terror group’s communications unit, who was also listed by the Committee to Protect Journalists as a broadcast engineer for the Islamic Jihad-affiliated Al-Quds Al-Youm TV.
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