The Israel Defense Forces and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) announced on Friday that they had “eliminated” a top Hamas terrorist who took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, kidnapping of Capt. Daniel Perez and later held three Israeli hostages in captivity in the Gaza Strip.
Muhammad Jandiya, the head of military security for Hamas’s Shejaiya Battalion, was killed in a strike carried out on Wednesday in northern Gaza, the IDF and Shin Bet said in a statement.
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, after he was killed during the attack.
Perez, who was 22, commanded Staff Sgt. Itay Chen and Sgt. Tomer Leibovich, who were also killed by Hamas on Oct. 7, while another soldier under his command, Matan Angrest, was taken hostage.
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. The three men were mistakenly killed by IDF troops in December 2023 after escaping captivity.
In his senior role within Hamas’s Shejaiya Battalion, Jandiya had recently been involved in planning additional terrorist attacks against Israeli forces operating in the Gaza Strip, the military said. It said Jandiya was among the masked Hamas men who participated in the terrorist group’s staged ceremonies during hostage-release deals.
Daniel Perez’s family held a symbolic first funeral after the IDF declared him dead in March 2024, even though his body remained in Hamas captivity. Perez’s body was returned to Israel on Oct. 13, 2025, as part of a hostage-release deal, and he was buried two days later at Mount Herzl Military Cemetery.
His father, Rabbi Doron Perez, president of the World Zionist Organization and executive chairman of the World Mizrachi Movement, thanked the Israeli army and Shin Bet for bringing his son’s captor to justice.
“What a zechut [privilege] to live in a sovereign Jewish state where we are able to bring such evildoers to justice,” he said in a video posted on Facebook in Amsterdam. “As I said at our son Daniel’s second funeral, ‘We may be the smallest nation in the world, but we are the largest family.’ Am Yisrael Chai!”
The IDF said Southern Command forces remain deployed in accordance with the ceasefire understandings and will continue operating to remove any immediate threat to Israeli troops and civilians.
