Samir Abu Younis, a top Hamas Commander who helped planned and execute the October 7 massacre in Israel has been killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Younis, 53, was commander of the Rafah Brigade in Hamas’ military wing and actively lead the killing of Israeli citizens that triggered
Reports said he was killed and others were injured in a targeted strike in the Mawasi area of Khan Younis of the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) confirmed that he had been eliminated following the assassination of his predecessor, Nael Abu Obeid, on September 15.
Israeli forces killed a top commander of the militant Hamas group in an overnight airstrike on southern Gaza, Israel said Sunday.
Younis had been one of the founding generation of the al-Qassam Brigades” (Hamas’s armed wing) which he joined in 1991.
Hamas said: “He was among the most senior commanders involved in planning and overseeing the October 7 attack.”
A funeral would be held to remember Younis on Sunday in Khan Younis, it added.
Despite a pause in major fighting since the October 2025 ceasefire, the IDF has continued to carry out strikes.
The military claimed it had killed more than ten “terrorists who advanced attacks against IDF troop and Israeli civilians” in the past week.
Among the deceased were Muhammad Ata Zaki Kishawi, a member of Hamas’s elite Nukhba force, which infiltrated Israeli territory on October 7.
Israel has vowed to track down and kill all Hamas operatives, particularly those linked to the terror attack or those holding Israeli hostages.
Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel Katz, the defence minister, said: “We will continue to hunt and pursue all of the organisation’s terrorists, from its commanders down to its last operative, wherever they may hide – until Hamas no longer exists in Gaza.”
Hamas is obliged to disarm and hand over its weapons to Palestinian technocrats under the October 2025 ceasefire.
In return, Israel must gradually withdraw its troops from Gaza.
Neither side has honoured their side of the bargain thus far, accusing each other of violating terms.
Gaza health authorities say at least 1,600 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire began.
More than 74,000 people have been killed in the territory since October 7, which saw around 1,200 people die in southern Israel.
