Terrorists from the Gaza Strip fired an anti-tank missile at Israeli troops stationed along the border fence on Sunday afternoon, killing one soldier and injuring three others, the Israel Defense Forces confirmed.
“An IDF soldier was killed, an IDF soldier was moderately wounded and two other IDF soldiers were lightly wounded by an anti-tank missile fired at a tank and an engineering vehicle during a local raid carried out earlier today in the territory of the Gaza Strip in the Kissufim area,” the IDF said on Sunday night.
Troops were operating in the area in an attempt to “thwart terrorist infrastructure, cleanse the area from terrorists and weapons and locate missing persons and bodies,” the army added.
The families of the soldiers were notified, the military said.
In a statement, Hamas’s Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades claimed its gunmen had clashed with Israeli troops on the border east of Khan Younis and destroyed two armored bulldozers and a tank.
Earlier on Sunday, the Israel Air Force killed a senior member of Hamas’s rocket-launching unit in the Gaza Strip, the IDF and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) said.
Muhammad Katamash was responsible for “artillery operations” in Hamas’s Central Brigade in the Gaza Strip and oversaw the firing of thousands of rockets at the Jewish state, according to the joint statement.
“The IDF has continued to attack several targets of the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip since the morning hours,” the army said on X (formerly Twitter).
“Among the targets were the head of a rocket firing squad and several other operatives. In addition, a Hamas weapons production site and a military headquarters were attacked,” the military said.
The IDF on Sunday made the first operational use of Iron Sting, a new mortar developed by Haifa-based Elbit Systems that uses both laser and GPS guidance systems to prevent collateral civilian damage.
The elite Maglan commando unit used the 120 mm mortars to target a Hamas launch site inside the Gaza Strip, the IDF said, sharing footage of the strike on social media.
Hamas terrorists killed 1,400 Israelis and wounded more than 4,500 in a massive offensive launched from the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, which included the firing of thousands of rockets at Israel and the infiltration of the Jewish state by terrorist forces.
In response, the IDF is conducting wide-scale strikes on strategic facilities belonging to the terrorist group. The military has defined killing senior Hamas terrorists as its “top priority.”
Amjad Majed Muhammad Abu Odeh, a Hamas naval operative who took part in the massacre of civilians in southern Israel, was killed during the strikes overnight Thursday, according to the IDF.
Mahmud Sabih, a senior Hamas terrorist operative who served as a top engineer and unit head in Hamas’s weapons development department, was also killed, the military said on Friday.
Sabih facilitated the transfer of information to Hamas regarding the production of weapons and unmanned aerial vehicles, according to the IDF.
Last week, Palestinian sources reported that Abdel-Fattah Diab Deif, the brother of Hamas military commander Muhammad Deif, was killed in an Israeli strike in the southern Gaza Strip.
Days earlier, Hamas “Economy Minister” Jawad Abu Shamala was killed by an Israeli airstrike. Abu Shamala managed the finances of the organization and earmarked the funds for financing and directing terrorism both inside and outside the Gaza Strip, the IDF said.
He previously held security positions in the terrorist organization and led several operations aimed at harming citizens of the State of Israel, the army added.
Zakaria Abu Muammar, a senior member of the Hamas political bureau who headed the terrorist group’s National Relations Office, was killed in a separate strike.
“Abu Muammar was known to be close to [Hamas leader in Gaza] Yahya Sinwar and, as part of his position, worked to incite and act against the sovereignty of the State of Israel and endanger its residents,” the IDF noted.
On Saturday and Sunday, goods crossed into the Gaza Strip via Egypt for the first time since Hamas’s Oct. 7 invasion.
“At the request of the U.S. administration, humanitarian aid [consisting of] only water, food and medical equipment went through Egypt’s Rafah crossing into the southern Gaza Strip,” the Israeli Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) unit said on Saturday.
“All equipment was inspected before entering Gaza,” added the statement.
