The IDF announced on Thursday that late last week, an IAF targeted airstrike in Gaza City eliminated Mahmoud Abd al-Fattah Awad, a terrorist in Hamas’s military wing who was directly involved in holding seven Israeli hostages captive inside subterranean tunnels: IDF surveillance soldiers Daniella Gilboa, Karina Ariev, and Naama Levy; Doron Steinbrecher and Ziv Berman from Kibbutz Kfar Aza; Omri Miran from Kibbutz Nahal Oz; and Eitan Mor, who was abducted from the Nova music festival.
Surviving hostage Ziv Berman welcomed news of the elimination on his Instagram account: “Are you still smiling down there in hell? This is the terrorist we nicknamed ‘the idiot.’ Out of all those rocket scientists in Gaza, he beat them all. Every dog has his day. Thank you to everyone who took part! Am Yisrael Chai!” Fellow hostage survivor Eitan Mor shared: “Eliminated. He guarded me underground for nearly half a year, as well as Ziv Berman and Omri Miran.”
While the military did not specify whether all seven hostages were held together simultaneously or at which specific phases of the war, the interlinked names shed light on the tunnel network Hamas used to imprison and rotate different groups of hostages. Several of the female captives—Gilboa, Ariev, and Steinbrecher—were previously documented together in a psychological warfare propaganda video published by the terror group in January 2024. The military made clear that Awad was targeted after continuing in recent weeks to orchestrate terror attacks and reconstitute Hamas operational formations in the Gaza Strip in blatant violation of the ceasefire.
Beyond his direct role in guarding and concealing hostages within the tunnel network, the IDF underscored that Awad posed an immediate operational threat. In the recent period, he actively pushed forward terror schemes against security forces and Israeli civilians, directing efforts to rebuild Hamas’s military capabilities despite the truce. “The terrorist worked to rehabilitate the terror organization’s capabilities while systematically violating the agreement, and was eliminated from the air to neutralize the threat,” the IDF Spokesperson stated, emphasizing that Southern Command forces remain determined to act across the Strip against any emerging terror cell.