IDF says it killed two Hamas engineers in Gaza strike; 13 others reported injured
IDF says it killed two Hamas engineers in Gaza strike; 13 others reported injured
Two bodies removed from mangled vehicle in Gaza City; military says the pair were involved in weapons production and acted to advance attacks, rebuild Hamas
An Israeli airstrike on a vehicle in western Gaza City killed at least two Palestinians and wounded 13 others on Sunday, according to medical staff, with the Israeli military saying it had targeted two Hamas terror operatives.
The strike hit a vehicle in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood, leaving it badly mangled, according to footage circulated on social media. Medical staff told Reuters that the explosion dismembered the two people killed, making them difficult to identify, and appealed for information that could help establish who they were.
The Israel Defense Forces said the strike targeted and killed two Hamas engineers, Hassan Ali Abu Nada and Abd al-Rahim Ahmad Khalil Khawa.
It said that recently, the two were involved in the development and production of weapons, advancing attacks on troops and civilians, and attempting to restore Hamas’s capabilities “in systematic violation of the ceasefire.”
“The terrorists were eliminated to remove a threat,” the army said, adding that it took steps to minimize harm to civilians in the strike.
Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City received the bodies of the two, according to The Associated Press.
“They had no heads,” Gaza City resident Ahmad Shreim told AP after coming across the remains while on his way to pick up his daughter from school. He added that “nowhere is safe” in Gaza.
Reuters reported that 13 other Palestinians were wounded in the strike.
The strike came nearly a year after a US-backed ceasefire took effect in October 2025, bringing an end to large-scale fighting but not to intermittent Israeli strikes in Gaza. Hamas has accused Israel of violating the agreement, while Israel has accused Hamas of repeatedly breaching it and continuing efforts to rebuild its military capabilities, saying this justified the strikes.
Sunday’s attack followed a series of Israeli strikes in Gaza in recent days that the IDF said targeted Hamas operatives accused of preparing attacks or rebuilding the terror group’s capabilities in violation of the ceasefire.
One strike on Thursday killed Muhammad Abdul Salam al-Yazouri, the commander of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade. Another strike on the same day killed Moamen Jabr Al-Sayed Abu Labda, whom the IDF identified as the commander of a Hamas sniper cell in the group’s Rafah Brigade.
In the past two weeks, more than 20 terror operatives were killed in Israeli strikes in the Strip, including five company commanders and five platoon commanders in Hamas’s elite Nukhba Force, according to the military.
The Gaza war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 people hostage.
The ensuing war between Israel and Hamas has killed over 73,400 people in Gaza, including more than 1,330 since the October 2025 ceasefire, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in the enclave, which does not differentiate between combatants and civilians.
The Israeli military says it has killed over 24,000 combatants in Gaza and another 1,200 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught. It believes that Hamas’s overall toll is largely accurate, with IDF officials estimating that two to three civilians were killed for every dead terror operative.
Gaza remains bisected into Israeli- and Hamas-controlled areas, and talks to bring about Hamas’s disarmament and the territory’s reconstruction have made only limited progress.
The Times of Israel Community.