The Israeli military has announced the killing of Mahmoud al-Aswad, the head of Hamas’ General Security Apparatus in the West Gaza area, in an ongoing campaign targeting the group’s leadership and infrastructure.
In a statement posted to X, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said al-Aswad was a significant source of knowledge for Hamas and a “key figure” in the organization’s operations in Gaza.
The strike was part of broader IDF activity on the outskirts of Gaza City and in Khan Yunis, where troops are working to “locate and dismantle terror infrastructure sites above and below ground and eliminate terrorists,” the military said.
Israel Strike in Gaza
The announcement comes amid intensified fighting in the Gaza Strip, where Israeli forces have renewed ground operations after months of drawn-out conflict.
Israel has vowed to dismantle Hamas’ military capabilities following the group’s October 2023 attack that killed around 1,200 people in southern Israel, according to Israeli authorities.
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The war has since killed over 36,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, sparking growing international concern over the humanitarian toll.
The death of al-Aswad marks another high-level blow to Hamas, which has seen several of its senior commanders targeted since the start of the war.
Another Commander Killed
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had reported on August 15 that Nasser Moussa, a senior commander in Hamas’s Rafah Brigade, was killed in an airstrike conducted in southern Gaza.
The targeted operation, coordinated with the Shin Bet and carried out under the Southern Command on August 9, struck Moussa in the Khan Younis region. The military later released video footage of the attack.
According to the IDF, Moussa was responsible for leading Hamas’s military control division, overseeing training programs and the combat preparedness of fighters involved in attacks on both Israeli civilians and military personnel.
He was also identified as a close associate of Mohammed Shabana, the Rafah Brigade leader who was killed in May.
Moussa had previously held roles as the head of the brigade’s military intelligence and observation networks.
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His death, the IDF stated, significantly disrupts the Rafah Brigade’s operational capabilities and limits Hamas’s capacity to launch attacks on Israeli forces in the area.
A day prior to the strike, Israeli warplanes reportedly destroyed a rocket storage site in Khan Younis.
How Troops are Operating
In the northern Gaza Strip, IDF troops are operating in Jabaliya and on the outskirts of Gaza City to dismantle terror infrastructure sites and eliminate terrorists.
IDF troops are also operating on the outskirts of Gaza City to locate and dismantle terror infrastructure sites above and below ground.
In the southern Gaza Strip, IDF troops operating in the Khan Yunis area, with the assistance of the IAF, eliminated a number of terrorists who advanced towards troops operating in the area, and dismantled terror infrastructure sites above and below ground.
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