Israel says it killed four Hamas and Islamic Jihad field commanders in Gaza strikes

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military said it killed four field commanders in Gaza over Sunday and Monday, including three members of Islamic Jihad and one from Hamas, despite a ceasefire that has been in place since October 2025. The army said on X that Muhammad Fathi Abdulhay Abu Fathr, commander of Hamas's Yebna Battalion in the Rafah Brigade, had been "neutralized." The military also said Ali Qa'id Muhammad Sityan, commander of a special Islamic Jihad unit, was killed in an airstrike on Monday and had taken part in the October 7, 2023 attacks. A separate airstrike in southern Gaza on Sunday killed Islamic Jihad field commander Talal Jabir Muhammad Abdal. A fourth commander, Zahir Ibrahim Khalil Abu Salim, was killed in an attack on Gaza on Monday, the army said, adding that he had also participated in the October 7 attacks. According to Gaza's Health Ministry, roughly 1,053 people, most of them women and children, have been killed and 3,406 others wounded since the ceasefire began.