The Israel Defense Forces said on Sunday that it had killed two Hamas terrorist commanders in separate airstrikes in the Gaza Strip last week.
Muhammad Najib Ashour, a Nukhba Force platoon commander in Hamas’s “military wing,” and Tamer Saeed Abu Nakhal, a cell commander, were involved in advancing attacks on IDF soldiers, the military said.
The terrorists “posed a threat to the troops and were subsequently eliminated in precise strikes,” it added.
The statement noted that steps were taken to limit 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 declared.
The current ceasefire 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.
Under the second phase of U.S. President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan, Hamas is to cede power and Gaza is to be deradicalized and disarmed, with the deployment of an International Stabilization Force to parts of the Strip currently held by the Israeli military.
Top Hamas leaders, including Khaled Mashaal and Musa Abu Marzouk, rejected key parts of Trump’s plan in recent months, including disarmament, despite having agreed to the proposal in October.
On Friday, the IDF and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) announced that they had eliminated a senior Hamas terrorist who took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, kidnapping of Capt. Daniel Perez and later held three Israeli hostages in captivity.
Muhammad Jandiya, the head of military security for Hamas’s Shejaiya Battalion, was killed in a strike carried out on Wednesday in northern Gaza.
During the Hamas massacre on Oct. 7, Jandiya commanded a Nukhba Force cell that infiltrated Kibbutz Nahal Oz and took part in the abduction of Perez’s remains, after he was killed during the attack.
According to the Israeli military, Jandiya was also responsible for holding hostages Yotam Haim, Samar Talalka and Alon Shamriz in an underground tunnel in the Shejaiya area of Gaza City.
Likud Party Knesset member Tally Gotliv told JNS on Sunday that “the mission to track down and eliminate Hamas terrorists who took part in the Oct. 7 massacre has become a strategic priority of the highest order, ensuring that those who murdered, raped, kidnapped and brutalized the Jewish people know they will be pursued without end.
“This is in addition to the fact that they continue to declare their intention to repeat what they began on Oct. 7, demonstrating that they remain a real and ongoing threat,” she added.
