The Israel Defense Forces eliminated several armed operatives of Hamas’s Nukhba Force in an overnight strike in central Gaza, the Israeli military said on Wednesday.
“The terrorists had recently conducted several military training sessions in the area and posed a threat to IDF soldiers and to the State of Israel,” according to the IDF.
It added that troops remain deployed in the Strip in accordance with the U.S.-brokered Oct. 10, 2025, ceasefire deal and “will continue to operate to remove any threat.”
The Nukhba Force led the charge during Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border attacks in Israel’s western Negev, in which some 1,200 people, primarily Jewish civilians, were massacred, thousands were wounded and 251 were taken as hostages to the Gaza Strip.
On Sunday, the Israeli Air Force struck an SUV in central Gaza, eliminating a terrorist cell.
Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s high representative for Gaza, said last week that mediators had agreed on a framework for the Strip’s reconstruction and a “negotiated resolution of the Palestinian question.”
The proposal “is now on the table,” Mladenov tweeted, adding, “It requires one clear choice: full decommissioning by Hamas and every armed group, with no exceptions and no carve-outs.”
Under the terms of the proposal, Hamas would gradually give up its weapons, including heavy arms such as rocket launchers, and share maps of its underground terror tunnel network, NPR reported on Thursday.
Top Hamas leaders, including Khaled Mashaal and Musa Abu Marzouk, have rejected key parts of U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan in recent months, including disarmament, despite having agreed to the proposal in October.
An unnamed Hamas official told NPR that the Iranian-backed terror group was awaiting the outcome of the joint U.S.-Israeli campaign against the regime in Tehran before responding to the plan.
Hamas is exploiting the war on the Islamic Republic to rebuild its civil and security rule of the Gaza Strip, the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center said on Monday.
While the IDF and the U.S. military are focused on “Operation Roaring Lion/Epic Fury” against Iran, Hamas “will continue to tighten security and military governance, including accelerating its rearming and the recruitment and training of operatives,” the think tank wrote.
Hamas’s “growing self-confidence and defiance of the demand for its disarmament are manifested by the overt presence of armed operatives from the security forces and the military wing in areas under Hamas control, despite the continued Israeli targeted killings in response to violations of the ceasefire agreement,” it said.
