A senior Hamas operative who helped plan and oversee the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel has been killed in an Israeli airstrike, according to officials on both sides.
Samir Abu Younis, recently appointed commander of the Rafah Brigade, was killed on Saturday in Al‑Mawasi, located in the southern Gaza Strip, the Hamas Al‑Qassam Brigades said.
A local Hamas official confirmed the death. The Israeli military said it had targeted him and that, prior to the strike, steps were taken to mitigate harm to civilians.
Eyewitnesses in Gaza reported that four missiles hit a tent in the Al‑Waha camp, a site that houses hundreds of displaced people in Al‑Mawasi, igniting a fire.
A medical source at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis said three injured individuals arrived, along with a fatality.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and the Israel Security Agency (ISA) confirmed in a Telegram statement that they have eliminated Younis.
The statement described him as a central figure among Hamas’s senior leadership and said he had acted to try to restore the strength of the brigade and Hamas’s terrorist organisation.
It added that Younis directed the brigade’s terrorists to advance and carry out attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops.
The Al‑Qassam Brigades wrote on Telegram that Younis had participated in numerous high‑profile operations and resisted enemy incursions, and was one of the most important commanders involved in planning and overseeing the 7 October attack.
They described his killing as a cowardly assassination.
Younis, aged 53, had held the command since 15 September, succeeding the brigade’s previous commander, Nael Abu Obeid, who was killed.
He joined Hamas’s armed wing in 1991 and held several senior operational roles before his promotion to commander. Hamas announced that his funeral will be held on Sunday afternoon in Khan Younis.
The Hamas‑led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed about 1,200 people and took 251 others hostage, triggered the current war in Gaza.
Since then, over 74,650 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory, according to the local health ministry.
Although a ceasefire was reached last October, Israel has continued occasional strikes, which it says target remaining Hamas militants and which it argues are permitted under the ceasefire terms.
