TEHRAN — Hamas confirmed on Sunday that Samir Abu Younis, commander of the al-Qassam Brigades’ Rafah Brigade, was killed in an Israeli drone strike on a tent in al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis. He was martyred in a coastal strip where displaced families have lived in tents for months, more than a year into a ceasefire that Israel treats as optional.
The al-Qassam Brigades described Abu Younis, known as Abu Mahmoud, as a member of their general military council who joined in 1991, served time in Israeli prisons, fought through the Second Intifada, and rose from the Western Battalion to lead Rafah, succeeding Nael Abu Obeid.
They said he helped plan and supervise Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7, 2023. Calling the killing a cowardly assassination, the group promised that “the blood will not be lost and resolve will not weaken.”
The strike also wounded two people, who were taken to Nasser Medical Complex, medical staff told Al Jazeera. Footage shows ambulances inside the hospital grounds and stretchers stained with blood.
Israel once designated al-Mawasi a “humanitarian zone” and pushed civilians toward it. It has bombed the area repeatedly since.
The numbers show how little the U.S.-backed “ceasefire” has meant. Since it took effect on October 11, 2025, Israeli attacks have killed at least 1,643 Palestinians and wounded 5,964, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
That is more than four deaths a day for over a year. In the past 48 hours alone, 16 people were killed and 68 injured.
Since October 2023, the toll stands at over 74,600 dead and over 176,000 wounded, a war that many Palestinians, rights groups and legal scholars call genocide.
The same evening, dozens of mourners gathered in northern Gaza for a vigil honoring 70 people killed during the war. They came from more than a dozen families that had been waiting for the remains of their loved ones.
Rescuers had recovered the bodies in recent weeks from buildings Israeli strikes destroyed. Each was wrapped in a white body bag and draped in a Palestinian flag, with a candle on the chest.
More than 10,000 people remain under the rubble, Palestinian authorities say, citing the UN. Only 850 bodies have been recovered since the ceasefire began. At that rate, clearing the backlog would take about 12 years.
Israel has not allowed heavy machinery into Gaza, so Civil Defense crews dig with a few working excavators and a shrinking fuel supply. Mass funerals are now routine.
The living is not spared. Cold-related deaths have reached 11 after a nine-month-old baby died of hypothermia, the first this winter. Families in tents and damaged buildings are coping with water damage from heavy rains.