Israeli military says it struck senior member of Hamas military wing in Gaza

Jerusalem: The Israeli military said on Sunday its forces had struck a senior militant from Hamas's military wing, with Palestinian sources confirming the death of a Hamas commander in southern Gaza.

Samir Abu Younis, a commander in Hamas's Al-Qassam Brigades, was killed in an airstrike, according to Palestinian sources in Gaza.

"A short while ago, the IDF and ISA struck a senior terrorist in Hamas' military wing," the Israeli military said in a joint statement with internal security agency Shin Bet in the early hours of Sunday morning.


It did not elaborate but said it would later provide further details.

A security source told AFP shortly after midnight that Younis, the commander of the Rafah Brigade in the Al-Qassam Brigades died in the strike "targeting him moments ago in Al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis."

Gaza's civil defence spokesman, Mahmoud Bassal, told AFP the agency had received the body of Younis, 53, and said two people were wounded in the strike in Gaza's south.

Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating the ceasefire that came into effect in October 2025, after two years of war triggered by an attack of unprecedented scale carried out by the Palestinian Islamist movement against Israel on October 7, 2023.

While the US-backed ceasefire has largely subdued the fighting, Israel has kept up regular strikes in the territory.

More than 1,600 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the ceasefire, according to the Gaza health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.

During the same period, the Israeli military has reported the loss of seven soldiers, as well as one civilian contractor.

Israel's former army chief Gadi Eisenkot is currently locked in negotiations to form a governing coalition while his rival, caretaker Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, remains responsible for military operations.