Newsletter
Newsletter Support JNS

IDF kills three Hamas terrorists in Gaza, including Oct. 7 kidnapper

An Israeli tank patrols inside the Gaza Strip, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, June 21, 2026. Photo by Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90.
An Israeli tank patrols inside the Gaza Strip, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, June 21, 2026. Photo by Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90.
Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90

The Israel Defense Forces said on Wednesday that it killed three Hamas Nukhba Force terrorists in airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on Oct. 22 and 23, including one who participated in the abduction of Israeli civilians during the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.

Ahmed Muhammad Ahmed Baraka, killed in southern Gaza on Thursday, took part in the abduction of several Israelis, including Alexander Dancyg from Kibbutz Nir Oz, and later helped hold hostages, including Nimrod Cohen, according to the IDF.

Two other terrorists, Nukhba platoon commander Omar Awadallah and Moataz Mahmoud Mohammed Al-Nimr, were killed in northern Gaza on Friday.

The military said the three had been planning attacks against Israeli troops and civilians and working to rebuild Hamas’s capabilities in violation of the ceasefire. It said the strikes were carried out using precision munitions and aerial surveillance to minimize civilian harm.

See more from JNS Staff
“I’m scared of what’s going to happen now,” Miri Bar-Halpern, a Jewish psychology lecturer at Harvard Medical School, told JNS. “I can already predict the backlash.”
The country’s next government will depend on whether its political leaders can reconcile their competing commitments, or whether voters will again be asked to resolve a deadlock that negotiations could not.
“They will push legislation very hard to end the Iran war, and it’s not inconceivable that they could get a fair amount of Republican support for that,” William Galston of Brookings told JNS.
Belgrade police killed the minor, who was armed with two knives and was tied to the Islamic State, the Serbian Interior Ministry said.