The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Shin Bet internal security agency confirmed on Sunday that they eliminated Samir Mahmoud Hassan Abu Younes, commander of the Rafah Brigade in the military wing of the Hamas terrorist organization, during an overnight airstrike between Friday and Saturday in the southern Gaza Strip.
The targeted killing was executed through a coordinated aerial operation conducted jointly by the two security agencies as part of ongoing efforts to neutralize Hamas’s surviving senior command structure. Abu Younes had served as commander of the Rafah Brigade for barely two months, having assumed the post after his predecessor, Na’el Abu Obeid, was eliminated on September 15. Before his promotion, Abu Younes held a succession of senior operational positions within the brigade, including deputy commander of the Rafah Brigade and commander of the Tel al-Sultan Battalion, making him one of the central figures in Hamas’s military apparatus in southern Gaza.
According to the joint statement issued by the IDF and Shin Bet, Abu Younes worked in his role to direct brigade operatives and advance terrorist plots against Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers. In addition, he was actively involved in efforts to rebuild the force structure and military capabilities of both the Rafah Brigade and Hamas more broadly following the severe blows the organization absorbed during the war. Defense officials emphasized that Southern Command forces remain deployed across the sector under existing agreements and that operations to neutralize security threats will continue unabated.
According to ‘Palestinian’ reports, the strike took place in the Al-Mawasi area of western Khan Younis, where an Israeli uncrewed aerial vehicle reportedly fired four missiles at the site where Abu Younes was located. Conflicting accounts emerged from Gaza regarding the exact target struck, with some sources reporting a tent and others identifying a vehicle.
Medical officials in the Strip stated that several additional individuals were wounded in the strike. Further details regarding the slain commander were released in an official communiqué by Hamas’s military wing confirming his death.
According to the terror group’s announcement, the 53-year-old Abu Younes joined Hamas’s armed wing in 1991 and served as a member of its General Military Council. Hamas explicitly credited him with involvement in planning and overseeing the October 7, 2023 massacre against Israel. His funeral was scheduled to take place on Sunday in Khan Younis. Abu Younes’s elimination adds to a sustained sequence of targeted killings that have repeatedly decapitated the leadership of the Rafah Brigade.
In May 2025, brigade commander Muhammad Shabana was eliminated in a strike in Khan Younis that also killed Muhammad Sinwar, head of Hamas’s military wing. He was succeeded by Na’el Abu Obeid, who was eliminated on September 15, 2026. Abu Younes, who replaced him, marks the third commander of the Rafah Brigade to be killed within a span of roughly a year and a half.
Just three days before the strike on Abu Younes, the IDF and Shin Bet also targeted Muhammad Abu Ismail, commander of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade, inside the Nasser Hospital compound. According to the IDF, Abu Ismail was directing attacks against Israeli troops and working to rehabilitate his brigade’s command network and military capabilities. However, the outcome of that strike was not immediately confirmed in the initial announcement. Responding to the elimination of Abu Younes, Defense Minister Israel Katz declared: “The Guardian of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. The IDF continues to thwart the heads of Hamas in Gaza, and another one joins his predecessors in the depths of hell.”