A Career That Ended Under Canvas
The Al-Waha camp in Al-Mawasi, on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip, is a place made of tents and sand. It shelters hundreds of displaced people — families who have already left one home and now live under canvas near the coast. On Saturday, four missiles struck one of those tents and set it on fire. Samir Abu Younis joined the military branch of Hamas in 1991.
Younis was 53 years old. He commanded the Rafah Brigade, a Hamas military unit named for the city at the strip’s southern end, and he had held the post only since 15 September. He was appointed after the previous commander of that brigade, Nael Abu Obeid, died. Before that he had held several senior jobs in planning and carrying out military operations, having joined the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military branch of Hamas, in 1991. He had held several senior operational roles before taking command of the brigade.
His own movement described the record plainly. Al-Qassam called him one of the most important commanders involved in planning and overseeing the 7 October attack. That attack, on 7 October 2023, killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel and saw 251 others taken hostage. It triggered the war that has not ended since. The announcement of his death came from Al-Qassam on Telegram, and a local Hamas official confirmed it.
Israel’s account is blunter and more specific about intent. The military and the ISA, Israel’s internal security agency, issued a joint statement on Telegram describing Younis as a “central figure among Hamas’s senior figures” and stating that he had been “eliminated”. [1] The statement added that he “acted with the aim of trying to restore the strength of the brigade and the Hamas terrorist organisation”. It went further: “Younis directed the brigade’s terrorists to advance and carry out terror attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops.” [1] Al-Qassam called the killing a “cowardly assassination”. It said Younis had “participated in numerous high-profile operations and resisted enemy incursions”. His funeral was set for Sunday afternoon in Khan Younis.
Four Missiles and a Name on Telegram
A medical source at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis recorded three injured people arriving there, along with one dead body. Israel’s military confirmed the target, adding that before the strike “steps were taken to mitigate harm to civilians”. The military described the measure as a precaution taken before the strike.
Gaza’s health ministry counts more than 74,650 people killed in the Palestinian territory since then. That tally is compiled by a body operating under Hamas authority, and the United Nations considers its figures reliable. The tally is compiled by a body operating under Hamas authority, and the United Nations considers its figures reliable.
A ceasefire reached in October 2025 stopped the major fighting. It did not stop the strikes. Israel argues that the terms of the agreement leave it the right to keep hitting remaining Hamas militants, and it has exercised that right repeatedly. Gaza’s health ministry counts more than 1,590 Palestinians killed since the ceasefire began. Over the same period, Israel’s military reports the loss of seven soldiers and one civilian worker employed by the military. The two counts are kept by different authorities and are not directly comparable.
His death leaves the Rafah Brigade’s command vacant for the second time in months. Israel states openly that it aims to prevent the brigade from restoring its strength.
Hospitals, Law, and the Evidence Gap
On Thursday, two missiles came through the roof of a five-storey building at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, where the surgery wards were. At least six Palestinians were killed, among them a surgeon and a 13-year-old boy. The surgery department, which serves half of Gaza’s two million people, was knocked out of service. Inside, furniture and medical equipment lay covered in dust from blown-out concrete, and torn wires hung from the ceiling.
Dr. Ahmed al-Farra, the hospital’s general director, put the missile count at two at a news conference and identified one of the dead as Rezeq Abu Shaira, 52, a doctor. Health officials said a man named Khaled Abu Anza had also been killed; an Israeli military spokeswoman, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with protocol, identified him as a Hamas operative. Abu Shaira had been featured in a 2026 documentary, American Doctor, working alongside three visiting US doctors who help provide medical care for Palestinians in Gaza. The dead also included the 13-year-old, according to Gaza’s education ministry.
Israel’s military named the man it was after: Muhammad Abu Ismail, “the commander of Hamas’ Khan Younis Brigade”. It said he and other militants “were hiding inside the Nasser Hospital”. It accused them of “turning the Nasser Hospital compound into a headquarters and operating from there”. Hamas rejected the claim, calling it “a blatant attempt to justify a heinous crime targeting a civilian medical facility”. Hamas did not immediately comment on whether any of its leaders had been targeted, injured or killed in the strike.
The dispute is not new, and it has a record. Hospital officials put the number of strikes on the Nasser complex at no fewer than seven since the war began. In August 2025, a strike followed by a second strike killed at least 20 people, including journalists and health workers.
The legal frame is narrow and specific. Under the laws of war, hospitals are generally protected from attack. Both attacking hospitals and using them for military purposes are typically considered breaches of the law. A medical facility can lose its protected status under certain conditions. Rights groups have argued that Israel has not shown sufficient evidence in many cases to justify its attacks on hospitals during this war. Residents of Gaza have described officials affiliated with the Hamas-run government and security forces sometimes using the enclave’s hospitals as offices.
Ayman Abu Obeid, a doctor injured in the strike, was asleep on an overnight shift when the explosion came. His account, given from a hospital bed: “All of a sudden the world turned upside down. It went dark all at once.” [1]
The same day brought four more deaths in separate incidents. Two people were killed and several wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a car in Gaza City. One was killed by Israeli gunfire in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. One died in a strike near a cemetery in Jabalia, north of the enclave. Israel’s military said it had hit a Hamas militant in the vehicle strike and did not comment on the other two incidents. A nine-month-old baby died of hypothermia, his father and a doctor told AFP, after days of harsh weather and flooding that displaced thousands of Palestinians living in tents.