The assassination of a top Hamas official, Samir Mahmoud Hassan, also known as Abu Yunis, commander of the 3rd Rafah Brigade, is a message from Israel that it is not just “mowing the lawn” but is working to wipe out the militant group, according to reports quoting sources.
Abu Yunis is the third commander of the Rafah Brigade that the IDF has eliminated since the beginning of the war in Gaza. Before him, the brigade was commanded by Nael Abu Obeid and Muhammad Shabana. Abu Obeid was eliminated last September, and Shabana was eliminated in May 2025.
This morning, the IDF and Shin Bet confirmed that Abu Yunis was killed and released footage showing him walking down the street—and being killed from the air.
The assassination comes just days after the IDF attacked the current Hamas commander of the Khan Yunis Brigade, Abu Ismail. Though he was wounded in the attack, Israel still has not received confirmation that he was killed.
It had been only months since Abu Yunis took charge as the commander of the Rafah Brigade. "And this is our message: there were no commanders in Hamas, and there will be no Hamas in Gaza," Israeli website Maariv quoted a military source as saying.
"There are days when we carry out two counterattacks, and there are also days when we carry out five counterattacks. This is a result of intelligence, operational capabilities, including visibility conditions and weather," the source added.
The source added that the aim is to create chaos within the militant group so that the operatives rethink their decision to operate under the organisation's military wing.
After the killing, Israel Defence Minister Yisrael Katz said: "The guardian of Israel will not slumber or sleep. The IDF continues to thwart the leaders of Hamas in Gaza, and another one joins his predecessors in the depths of hell. The offensive policy that I am leading together with the Prime Minister and the IDF in Gaza will continue - until Gaza is demobilised and there is no Hamas.
In recent months, Israel has increasingly targeted operatives in Gaza, including numerous terrorists who took part in the October 7 assault, saying they posed a threat to Israeli forces. The IDF stated that many of the recent strikes have focused on Hamas operatives involved in building up the terror group’s force and civil control mechanisms in the Strip.
