The Israel Defense Forces has eliminated a Hamas terrorist responsible for abducting four Israeli civilians during the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, the military said on Tuesday.
Yousef Ayesh Awad Ramadan, a deputy commander of a Hamas Nukhba terrorist cell, helped kidnap Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eliya Cohen, Alon Ohel and Or Levy from a bomb shelter at the Re’im Junction in Israel’s south, according to the IDF.
In addition, throughout the War of Redemption sparked by the Oct. 7 massacre, Ramadan “advanced attack plans against IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians,” the IDF said. “As such, he posed an immediate threat to IDF troops operating in the Gaza Strip.”
The terrorist was eliminated in an airstrike in central Gaza, the army stated, adding that it took steps to prevent harm to noncombatants, including the use of precise munitions and aerial surveillance.
Soldiers remain deployed in the enclave in accordance with the U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement “and will continue to operate to remove any immediate threat,” it added.
The current truce went into effect in the Gaza Strip on Oct. 10, 2025, ending the two-year war that began when Hamas, other Palestinian terrorist groups and Gazan “civilians” invaded the northwestern Negev on Oct. 7, 2023. They murdered some 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 more into the enclave.
Ohel, who was held hostage for 738 days and was released as part of the U.S.-brokered Gaza deal on Oct. 13, 2025, thanked the IDF for eliminating his kidnapper in an Instagram story on Tuesday night.
“I just heard that the terrorist who was part of the cell that kidnapped me has been taken out. I want to say thank you to the IDF, which is doing an incredible job in Gaza and Lebanon,” he said, adding: “Until the last terrorist.”
