(Oct. 18, 2026 / JNS)
The Israel Defense Forces eliminated four Hamas terrorists, including an operative who infiltrated Israel during the Hamas-led cross-border attacks on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in separate strikes across the Gaza Strip last week, the military said on Saturday.
The IDF named them Abd al-Jawad Juda, who was killed on Saturday; Adham Khalil Mohammed Marouf, who invaded Israel on Oct. 7, and Ubaida Suhail Hamad Murtaja, sniper, both of whom were killed on Friday; and Mahmoud Khaled Mohammed Madhoun, a member of Hamas’s Nukhba Force, who launched anti-tank missiles at Israeli soldiers and was killed on Thursday.
These terrorists engaged in advancing attacks against IDF troops and Israeli civilians, as well as restoring Hamas’s military capabilities, in violation of the ceasefire, according to the IDF.
“Prior to the strikes, steps were taken to mitigate harm to civilians, including the use of precision munitions and aerial surveillance,” the army added.
In a separate statement on Friday, the IDF said it eliminated on Oct. 14 a Nukhba Force cell commander who infiltrated the Re’im military outpost in the northwestern Negev during the Oct. 7 massacre.
Maher Walid Omar al-Husseini was killed in a strike in the southern Gaza Strip, according to the military.
Recently, he engaged in activities restoring the terrorist organization’s capabilities, in violation of the ceasefire, and was thus eliminated, the IDF continued.
Steps to mitigate harm to civilians were undertaken in this strike as well, the IDF said.
“IDF troops under the Southern Command remain deployed in the area in accordance with the agreement and will continue to operate to remove any immediate threat,” the military stated.
‘Hold a Kalashnikov and shoot Jews’
On Thursday, the IDF published a letter written by Ibrahim Sinwar, the son of former Hamas terror chief Yahya Sinwar, at the start of the war, when he was 10 years old, in which he expressed a desire “to hold a Kalashnikov and shoot Jews.”
The letter was recovered by IDF soldiers in the Gaza Strip in 2024.
Yahya Sinwar masterminded the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, which killed more than 1,200 people, wounded thousands and resulted in 251 people being taken hostage to Gaza. He was killed in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Oct. 16, 2024.
In the letter addressed to his father, Ibrahim expresses how much he misses him, writing that in his spare time he “makes pistols, tanks and Kalashnikovs out of paper and cardboard” and declaring his desire “to hold a Kalashnikov and shoot Jews.”
“I, Ibrahim, In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful Beloved father, I miss you very much! I want to hug you and see you victorious, and I want to proclaim ‘Allah is the greatest,’ hold a Kalashnikov and shoot Jews,” reads the letter, according to a translation provided by the IDF.