Israeli army kills two suspected Hamas members linked to hostage-taking

The Israeli army says it has killed two men in the Gaza Strip who are said to have been involved in the abduction and holding of Israeli hostages.

A Hamas commander was killed in an attack in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, the military and domestic intelligence service Shin Bet said. During the Gaza War, the member of the Hamas military wing is said to have been involved in the captivity of nine hostages, including the German-Israeli brothers Gali and Ziv Berman and the German-Israeli Alon Ohel. The three were released under a ceasefire agreement in October last year.

The army also killed Gaza resident Saher Saker. The Al-Aqsa Hospital in the Gaza Strip also said he died on Saturday in an Israeli airstrike in Nuseirat in the center of the coastal strip. Three other people were injured. Circles within the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas also said that Saker was involved in the hostage-taking.

The Israeli army confirmed Palestinian reports that Saker was said to have ridden a motorcycle on October 7, 2023 that kidnapped Israeli Noa Argamani and her boyfriend Avinatar Or to the Gaza Strip. Most recently, he was involved in planning new attacks and was therefore killed “to eliminate the threat he posed,” the military said.

The fate of Argamani, who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival in the Gaza Strip, caused great sympathy around the world. Footage of her abduction on a motorcycle, during which she frantically cried and cried for help, spread on social media. In June 2024, she and three other hostages were freed by an Israeli special unit. According to the Israeli army, there were fierce battles with armed Palestinians. According to the Hamas-controlled health authority, 274 Palestinians were killed. No distinction was made between fighters and civilians.

Last year, Argamani also gave a speech to the UN Security Council in which she reported on the circumstances of her captivity.

On October 7, 2023, fighters from Hamas and other extremist organizations killed around 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped more than 250 others as hostages in the Gaza Strip. The attack sparked the Gaza war. Although a ceasefire has been in effect since October 2025, deadly attacks continue to occur. Recently, Israel said it had increased its air strikes again and specifically killed high-ranking Hamas members.