Report: Shin Bet letting Hamas operatives choose to be killed alone or with their families

As Israel continues to target Hamas operatives in Gaza, the Shin Bet security agency reportedly has been calling members of the terror group ahead of strikes, offering them a choice: Leave their homes and be killed alone, or be killed along with their family members. The report published Thursday in the Arabic newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat stated that such incidents occurred at least five times in recent months, citing Palestinian sources familiar with the cases, which could not be independently verified.

The Shin Bet and Israel Defense Forces have not commented on the report, which came amid intensifying scrutiny over civilian killings in the Gaza Strip that Israeli officials say are a result of Hamas’s tactics to embed its fighters and weapons caches within civilian areas. The report said Mohammad Alyan al-Bayouk, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis on Wednesday, was on the roof of his home when he was targeted. Before the strike, he received a phone call from Shin Bet officers, who allegedly told him to choose between being hit alone on the roof and sparing his family, or staying inside.

Al-Bayouk, who the IDF on Friday identified as a member of Hamas’s elite Nukhba Force, chose to go up to the roof, where he was killed. Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Newsletter email address Get it By signing up, you agree to the terms His aunt was seriously injured when she chased after him in an attempt to stop him from going outside after the call, according to a relative who spoke to the newspaper. בשתי תקיפות בדרום רצועת עזה: צה"ל ושב"כ חיסלו ארבעה מחבלים מארגון הטרור חמאס צה"ל ושב"כ תקפו מוקדם יותר השבוע במרחב ח'אן יונס וחיסלו את מחמד עליאן ביוק, מחבל נוח'בה בזרוע הצבאית של ארגון הטרור חמאס.

Advertisement בתקיפה נוספת השבוע במרחב רפיח, צה"ל ושב"כ חיסלו מספר מחבלים מהזרוע הצבאית של… pic.twitter.com/jcASm1F3uz — צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) October 30, 2026 The military said al-Bayouk was one of four Hamas operative killed Wednesday in IDF strikes across southern Gaza. It named the other three operatives as Hammam Jaber al-Sayed Abu Labda, Mahmoud Abu Naameh and Mohammed Hamad Shariq Abu Sultan, who the IDF said were together at the time of the strike in Rafah.

Later Friday, the IDF confirmed it also killed two terror operatives on Thursday in central Gaza’s Nuseirat, including Ihab Jamil Abu Taqiya. The military said he was a Hamas commander involved in holding hostages taken during the October 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel that sparked the Gaza war, including Raya Rotem, Hila Rotem Shoshani, Emily Hand, Ohad Ben Ami, Noa Argamani, Andrey Kozlov, Shlomi Ziv, Almog Meir Jan, Maxim Herkin, Yosef Haim Ohana, Segev Kalfon and Alex Lobanov .

The same strike also killed Ibrahim Gihad Muhammad Abu Oshaiba, identified by the military as a Hamas platoon commander. The IDF said all the Hamas operatives had been advancing attacks on troops and Israeli civilians and acted to restore Hamas’s capabilities, “in systematic violation of the ceasefire.” Advertisement Palestinians search through the rubble of a building destroyed in an overnight Israeli strike in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, October 23, 2026. (AP/Abdel Kareem Hana) Separately, two Hamas weapon depots were also destroyed Thursday night in strikes in the central Strip’s Bureij camp and in Gaza City.

The military said Hamas used the sites to store dozens of various weapons, including RPGs, explosive devices, rockets, Kalashnikov rifles, grenades and other equipment. צה"ל ושב"כ השמידו שני מחסני אמצעי לחימה של ארגון הטרור חמאס ברצועת עזה צה"ל ושב"כ תקפו אמש במרחב אל-בורייג' ובמרחב העיר עזה, והשמידו שני מחסני אמצעי לחימה ששימשו את הזרוע הצבאית של ארגון הטרור חמאס. ארגון הטרור חמאס אחסן בתוך המחסנים עשרות אמצעי לחימה מסוגים שונים ובהם RPG,… pic.twitter.com/pWYRRzrICw — צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) October 30, 2026 Ahead of those airstrikes, the military said it issued warnings to Gaza civilians residing in the areas to mitigate harm to them.

Israel in recent months has increasingly targeted terror operatives in Gaza, including numerous terrorists who took part in the Hamas-led October 7 atrocities, saying they posed a threat to Israeli forces. Advertisement After a US-brokered ceasefire took hold in Gaza in October 2025, the so-called Yellow Line was established to divide the areas under Israeli control — recently expanded to some 63 percent of the territory — from those under Hamas control.

Hamas reportedly told a UN official earlier this month that it was prepared to carry out an October 7-style attack in Israel, the West Bank or abroad, following the IDF’s expansion past the Gaza ceasefire line and the Palestinian Authority’s cancellation of legislative elections in November. Implementation of US President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza has stalled, with Hamas refusing to disarm and Israel refusing to withdraw from any part of Gaza until that condition is met.

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