IDF says Oct. 7 terrorist eliminated; 5 said killed in Gaza strikes, including child

A Hamas terrorist who invaded Kibbutz Nirim during the October 7, 2023, onslaught was killed in an airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, the military has announced.

The strike killed Mohammed Emad Alrahman Abu Taima, who served as the commander of a Nukhba Force cell in Hamas’s military wing, the army said on Wednesday.

During the Hamas-led attack on October 7, Abu Taima raided Kibbutz Nirim, according to the IDF. Five civilians were murdered by terrorists at Kibbutz Nirim that day as gunmen rampaged through Gaza border communities

During the war, Abu Taima commanded his Nukhba cell in ambushes against Israeli troops, and recently worked to advance attacks, train operatives and recruit new ones, the military said.

The IDF said Abu Taima posed an “immediate threat” to Israeli troops in Gaza, and he was therefore “eliminated in a precise airstrike.” The IDF in recent months has been ramping up strikes on terror operatives in Gaza, saying they posed a threat to Israeli forces.

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On Wednesday Palestinians reported that IDF fire killed five people in southern Gaza.

Truck driver Ahmad Aslim was reportedly killed by IDF fire in the al-Mawasi area of Rafah while transporting goods into Gaza through the Kerem Shalom Crossing, according to Hamas-linked media.

Medics said four people were killed in an Israeli strike on a tent for displaced people in al-Mawasi. The medics said a 10-year-old child was among those killed.

Twelve people were wounded in the two incidents, medics told Reuters. The IDF has not yet responded to The Times of Israel’s requests for comment on the incidents.

צה"ל חיסל ראש חוליית נוח'בה שפשט לקיבוץ נירים בטבח ה-7 באוקטובר

צה"ל תקף אתמול בדרום רצועת עזה וחיסל את המחבל מחמד עמאד אלרחמאן אבו טעימה, ראש חוליית נוח'בה בזרוע הצבאית של ארגון הטרור חמאס. במהלך טבח ה-7 באוקטובר, טעימה פשט לקיבוץ נירים.

לאורך המלחמה טעימה פיקד על חוליית… pic.twitter.com/UbUu2ijPZ9

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) July 8, 2026

The IDF has for more than two and a half years sought out and targeted terrorists involved in the October 7 attack, in which terrorists killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostage, launching the Gaza war.

The IDF and Shin Bet announced separately on Tuesday that they had killed a Hamas Nukhba Force commander and a commander in the terror group’s intelligence division in recent strikes in the Strip.

One of those strikes was on Sunday in northern Gaza and killed Ahmad Yahya Ibrahim Batsh, a commander of a Nukhba Force cell, according to the military.

A separate strike on Monday in southern Gaza killed Hamouda Abu Daqa, who served as an intelligence commander, according to the military.

Hamas Nukhba serial killer Muhammad Emad Abu Tayima, who invaded Kibbutz Beeri on 10/7 for the sole purpose of murdering Jews, was killed today by the IDF. He was also a Sheikh, among at least 15 religious leaders who were Hamas terrorists, preaching Jew hate throughout Gaza. 1/ pic.twitter.com/LVhhmgkIC4

— Aizenberg (@Aizenberg55) July 8, 2026

In recent months, the military has been ramping up strikes on terror operatives in Gaza, saying they posed a threat to Israeli forces who remain in control of over half of Gaza, following an October 2025 ceasefire that halted the war and saw the last of the hostages returned. Hamas controls the remainder of Gaza, including most of its population.

Meanwhile, more details emerged about a Tuesday airstrike in Gaza City’s Tel Al-Hawa neighborhood, which medics said killed four people, including a top aid worker and two children.

Gaza media outlets affiliated with Hamas reported that Mohammed al-Wahidi, the public relations director of the Egyptian Committee for Aid to Gaza, an Egyptian organization that assists Gazans, was killed in the strike.

The strike came just before the kickoff of the Egypt-Argentina World Cup match. Wahidi had helped organize public screenings of the game across the enclave, according to local health officials.

A bomb hit a car in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City at dusk, killing passersby including al-Wahidi, 10-year-old boy Hamza al-Deri and his 8-year-old brother, Fari. Ahmed Daghmush, 33, the driver of the car, was also killed, according to Dr. Mohamed Abu Selmiya, the director of Shifa Hospital, which received the four bodies.

The Israeli military said al-Wahidi was not a target of the strike. It said the strike was aiming for a Hamas terror operative.

An Israeli strike hit the same street half an hour earlier, causing no casualties.

The blast turned what was supposed to be a moment of celebration — the live screening of a potential Argentina upset by an Arab team — into an instance of the continuing bloodshed in Gaza despite a truce reached in October.

Team Egypt’s Gaza fanbase grew since the start of the tournament, as coach Hossam Hassan spotlighted the plight of Palestinians in press briefings and on the pitch. He dedicated his team’s victory over Australia on Friday to both Egyptians and Palestinians and waved a Palestinian flag on the pitch.

Hassan watched his team lose 3-2 to Argentina after the Egyptians had led for most of the game.

Separately, the Israeli human rights NGO Gisha said in a report published on Wednesday that the Prison Service is holding the body of a Gazan who died in Israeli custody for use as a bargaining chip in future hostage negotiations, though no Israeli hostages have been held in Gaza since January.

Gisha, which focuses on aiding residents of Gaza, has petitioned the High Court, demanding that Israel release his body. Haaretz reported that in its response to the petition, the state said it is still formulating its policy regarding the body, a process that began in April.

The man, named Ayman, was killed in December 2023, according to the Gisha report. In response to a Gisha query in 2024, the state said it had “no indication” that it was holding Ayman, but in July 2025 it acknowledged that he had died in Israeli custody and that it was holding his body, the report said.

Israel said that Ayman was a military operative for Hamas, which his family denies, according to the report.

In a separate instance, the report said that the state cannot locate the body of Rami, a construction worker who had been working legally in Israel but who was arrested shortly after October 7, when the government revoked Palestinian work permits en masse in the wake of the attack. The report said Rami died in custody after his diabetes went untreated, and that the incident is under investigation.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 73,000 people in the Strip have been killed during the war — including over 1,000 since the October 2025 ceasefire — though the toll is unverified and does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

The Israeli military believes that Hamas’s overall toll is largely accurate, with IDF officials estimating that two to three civilians were killed for every dead terror operative.

The IDF says it has killed over 23,000 combatants in Gaza and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.

Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.