The Israel Defense Forces executed a targeted strike earlier this week in the Khan Yunis area of the southern Gaza Strip, eliminating terrorist Ismail Ibrahim Darwish Kandil, a member of the elite Nukhba force of Hamas’s military wing. Kandil was among the terrorists who invaded sovereign Israeli territory during the October 7 massacre, directly taking part in the combat engagement that led to the death of the Commander of the Nahal Brigade, the late Col. Yonatan Steinberg.
In recent weeks, the terrorist was actively advancing fresh terror plots directed against IDF personnel and Israeli civilians, while working to reconstitute Hamas’s terror infrastructure on the ground in systematic violation of the ceasefire understandings. The IDF targeted and eliminated him to neutralize the persistent threat he posed. IDF units operating under Southern Command remain strategically deployed across the sector in accordance with established arrangements. They will continue to take resolute action to preempt and neutralize any imminent threat.