Israel kills Hamas Rafah brigade commander Samir Abu Younis in Gaza strike
The Israeli military said on Sunday that its forces had killed Samir Abu Younis, 53, commander of Hamas’s Rafah brigade, in an overnight airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip. Hamas’s armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, said he was killed on Saturday and confirmed he had played a prominent role in planning and overseeing the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. Medics said he was killed and others wounded when a strike targeted him in a street in the Mawasi area of Khan Younis.
Israel said he had led the Rafah brigade since September 15, when his predecessor, Nael Abu Obeid, was killed. Hamas said Abu Younis joined its armed wing in 1991 and held several senior operational posts in Rafah before taking command of the brigade. His funeral was set for Sunday afternoon in Khan Younis.
An October 2025 ceasefire halted major fighting in the Israel-Gaza war but has not stopped Israeli attacks or secured Hamas’s disarmament. Gaza health authorities say at least 1,600 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire began, and five Israeli soldiers have been killed. Palestinian authorities put the death toll from Israel’s campaign since October 7 at more than 74,000; Hamas-led fighters killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel that day.
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