The Israel Defense Forces over the weekend killed several Hamas operatives responsible for taking civilians hostage during the terrorist group’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, the military announced on Sunday night.
The IDF said that troops from the Gaza Division, operating in coordination with the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), on Saturday identified an armed Hamas cell in the central Strip. The terrorists were struck after attempting to cross the ceasefire line and approach a military position to carry out an imminent attack against Israeli forces stationed there, according to the statement.
Following intelligence assessments, the military identified one of those killed in the strike as Ali Sami Mohammad Shakra, a platoon commander in Hamas’s elite Nukhba Force. The IDF said Shkara took part in the Oct. 7 cross-border assault on the Jewish state and was involved in the abduction of several hostages, including Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alon Ohel, Eliya Cohen and Or Levy from a roadside bomb shelter near the Supernova music festival site.
Goldberg-Polin was murdered in captivity in August 2024, while Cohen and Levy were released under the Jan. 19, 2025, ceasefire agreement. Ohel was freed in the most recent hostage deal, on Oct. 13, 2025.
The military said two additional terrorists killed in the strike were Mohammad Mabhouh, described as a regional company commander in Hamas’s Al-Bureij Battalion, and Mohammad Fuad Jaser Sayyid. According to the military, both terrorists were involved in holding Israeli hostage Avinatan Or during his 900-plus days in Gaza captivity. The IDF published an image of Sayyid inside a Hamas tunnel while guarding Or, who was freed alongside Ohel on Oct. 13.
Several other Nukhba Force operatives were also killed in Saturday’s strike, including terrorists the military said were involved in firing rockets at Israel.
“IDF troops in the Southern Command remain deployed in accordance with the ceasefire agreement and will continue to operate to remove any immediate threat,” the statement concluded.
Hamas representatives reportedly arrived in Cairo on Saturday ahead of discussions with Egyptian mediators regarding the implementation of U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace plan for the Gaza Strip.
Talks will also focus on “halting Israeli violations,” one Hamas official told AFP on Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak with the press.
According to the official, the terrorist group will stress the need for the IDF to withdraw from Gaza, fully reopen the Strip’s borders, increase the number of crossings and allow greater volumes of aid to enter the enclave.
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, killing approximately 1,200 people, primarily civilians, and taking 251 hostages. The terms of the ceasefire leave the IDF in control of approximately half of Gaza.
Top Hamas leaders, including Khaled Mashaal and Musa Abu Marzouk, have rejected key parts of Trump’s plan in recent months, including disarmament, despite having agreed to the proposal in October.
“The resistance and its weapons are the ummah’s [Islamic nation’s] honor and pride,” Mashaal told an anti-Israel summit in Istanbul on Dec. 6.
“A thousand statements are not worth a single projectile of iron,” he said.
