IDF Strikes Eliminate Nukhba Commander Who Attacked Re'im Base on October 7, Two More Operatives in Gaza
Israeli strikes in mid-October 2026 killed three Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives in Gaza, among them a Nukhba Force commander the IDF says attacked the Re'im base on October 7, 2023.
The IDF said in mid-October 2026 that strikes carried out over two days in Gaza had killed three operatives from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, including a commander who took part in the October 7, 2023 attack on the Re'im base.
Three strikes in two days
The military named Maher Walid Omar al-Husseini, described as a commander of a Nukhba Force cell in Hamas's military wing, as having been killed in a strike in Gaza. Nukhba, Hamas's most highly trained unit, spearheaded the October 7 invasion of Israel, and the IDF has continued to track down its surviving cell commanders more than three years later. A day later, in a separate strike in northern Gaza, the IDF killed Mohammed Mohammed Abd al-Khalek Hala, a Hamas commander in the group's weapons production division who the military said also entered Israeli territory on October 7. The same day, a third strike in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza killed Ahmad Jabrin Tawfiq Dalha, identified by the IDF as a Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative in that group's military wing.
The attack on Re'im
The IDF said al-Husseini had attacked the Re'im base, home to the Gaza Division, on October 7, 2023. During that assault, four IDF soldiers were killed and seven were wounded fighting off Hamas gunmen who tried to overrun the base. The attackers were eventually repelled after a lengthy battle. A soldier who served at the base and his father were also murdered that day at a junction just outside it. More than three years later, the IDF says it located and struck the cell commander it holds responsible for leading that assault.
Why these strikes happened now
The IDF said all three men had been working to rebuild Hamas's and Islamic Jihad's military capabilities and to advance attacks on Israeli troops and civilians, which it described as a systematic violation of the ceasefire in place in Gaza. Hala, in particular, was accused of helping produce weapons and expand the group's military buildup across the Strip. The military said it took steps before each strike, including the use of precision munitions and aerial surveillance, intended to reduce the risk to civilians nearby.
The IDF has said that Israeli troops, operating under the ceasefire framework through the army's Southern Command, remain deployed in parts of Gaza and continue to act against threats it identifies as immediate. Israeli officials have described many of the recent strikes as targeting Hamas operatives attempting to rebuild the group's military force, its secret headquarters, and its civil control mechanisms inside the Strip. These three strikes were presented by the military as a continuation of that approach, rather than as a single isolated operation.
More than three years after October 7, the IDF continues to publicize strikes tied specifically to that day's attack, identifying individual commanders by name and listing the base, kibbutz, or community where they are said to have fought. Al-Husseini's case, tied directly to the battle for the Re'im base, is one of a long list the military has released since the war began.
