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Gazan man, girl reportedly killed by IDF, which says it eliminated Oct 7 terrorist
A man and girl were killed Sunday in an Israeli strike west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, Palestinian media reported, as the IDF said strikes last week had killed three Hamas operatives and an Islamic Jihad commander involved in the abduction of 12-year-old Yagil Yaakov on October 7, 2023.
Khan Younis’s Nasser Hospital reportedly received several people wounded in the IDF strike on Mawasi, as well as the bodies of Akram Abu Madi, 31, and Julia al-Balaawi, who was reported to be between 8 and 11 years old. The IDF did not comment on the reports.
Meanwhile, the IDF and Shin Bet said Sunday that a strike in southern Gaza on Friday had killed Zaki Youssef Mahmoud Abu Mustafa, the elite forces commander of Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s Khan Younis Brigade, who the military said helped rebuild PIJ in violation of the Gaza ceasefire.
In the October 7 onslaught that sparked the Gaza war, Abu Mustafa raided Kibbutz Nir Oz — one of the hardest-hit border communities — and took part in the abduction of Yaakov, who was released as part of the week-long November 2023 truce, the IDF and Shin Bet said. The military published a photo showing Abu Mustafa and several other terrorists during the abduction.
“In recent months, Abu Mustafa played a significant role in rebuilding the terrorist organization’s military capabilities in the Gaza Strip, in violation of the ceasefire agreement,” the IDF said.
Abu Mustafa had also advanced attacks on troops and “attempted to conduct training for terrorists at Nasser Hospital, while exploiting the hospital to advance terrorist activity,” according to the military.
“Due to his recent activities and the immediate threat he posed to IDF troops, Abu Mustafa was eliminated in a precise strike,” the military said.
It added that a separate strike over the weekend had killed an operative in Hamas’s elite Nukhba Force.
The operative, Mohammed Osama Abd al-Aziz Saba al-Eish, “attempted to advance training and instruction for the organization’s terrorists and worked to recruit additional terrorists to the organization,” the military said.
An Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza on Wednesday also killed Hussein Qadra and Mohammed Farra, Hamas moneymen responsible for transferring half a billion shekels (roughly $169 million) to the terror group, according to the IDF.
The military has struck and killed several Hamas financial operatives in both Gaza and Lebanon in recent months.
סייעו בהעברה של יותר מחצי מיליארד ש״ח לידי חמאס: צה”ל חיסל מחבלים בתשתית העברת הכספים של ארגון הטרור חמאס ברצועת עזה
צה”ל תקף במהלך השבוע שעבר בדרום רצועת עזה וחיסל את המחבלים חסין קדרה ומחמד פרא – מחבלים בזרוע הצבאית של ארגון הטרור חמאס והגא״פ.
המחבלים פעלו תחת תשתית המופעלת… pic.twitter.com/Blbzhx6Iix— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) June 21, 2026
The IDF said Qadra and Farra served in the military wings of Hamas and PIJ but operated under a “Hamas-run financial network responsible for transferring funds into the Gaza Strip.”
“Qadra, who headed the network, together with Farra and other operatives, acted under the direction of Hamas leadership and facilitated the transfer of more than NIS half a billion to Hamas’s military wing by operating a network of dozens of couriers and money exchangers in Turkey and the Gaza Strip,” the IDF said.
“Through these funds, the Hamas terror organization continued, especially in recent months, to pay salaries to its terrorists and finance terror activities against IDF troops and Israeli civilians, in violation of the ceasefire agreement,” the military said.
At least 1,012 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire took effect on October 10 last year, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures do not differentiate between civilians and combatants. The IDF has reported five deaths in its ranks during the same period.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
