IDF says Khan Younis strike killed Nukhba operative tied to Steinberg's death

The Israel Defense Forces said on Thursday that it had killed a member of Hamas's Nukhba force who, according to the military, entered Israeli territory during the October 7, 2023 attack and took part in the killing of the commander of the Nahal Brigade, Colonel Yonatan Steinberg. In its statement, the IDF named the man as Ismail Ibrahim Darwish Kandil and said he belonged to the military wing of Hamas.

The Times of Israel reported that the strike took place on Monday in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza, citing the military. The Israeli news site Ynet also reported the announcement, saying the man had recently been working to rebuild Hamas's military capabilities. The IDF said he was killed "in order to remove the threat he posed."

Who the Nukhba force is

Nukhba, an Arabic word meaning elite, is the name of the commando component of Hamas's armed wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. Its operatives led the assault on Israeli communities and army positions near the Gaza border on October 7, 2023, breaching the perimeter fence and attacking kibbutzim, towns and military bases in the country's south. Israeli announcements about strikes on individual Hamas members frequently identify them as Nukhba operatives and link them to specific events of that day, a framing that Israeli commentators describe as closing a circle.

Who Colonel Yonatan Steinberg was

Steinberg commanded the Nahal Brigade, one of the Israeli army's regular infantry brigades, whose conscripts serve in both combat and community service roles and whose formation is historically tied to the kibbutz movement. He was among the senior officers killed in the opening hours of the October 7 attack. The Times of Israel's military correspondent, Emanuel Fabian, reported that the IDF says Qandil took part in killing Steinberg near the border, referring to him as the then-commander of the brigade. English-language reports of the announcement render his first name both as Yonatan, in the IDF's own English text, and as Jonathan.

Differences in the transliterations

The dead man's name appears in more than one English form. The IDF's English statement calls him Ismail Ibrahim Darwish Kandil, while the Times of Israel and Fabian write Qandil, reflecting two common ways of rendering the same Arabic letter. The Hebrew announcement circulated by Israeli outlets, including the Telegram channels of Abu Ali Express and News.co.il, spells the name in Hebrew characters. These are variations in transliteration rather than reports about different people.

Khan Younis and the ceasefire

Khan Younis is a city in the southern Gaza Strip and one of the territory's main population centres. It has been a focus of Israeli operations through the war that followed the October 7 attack. In the Hebrew version of its statement, quoted in the Times of Israel's liveblog, the military said the man had been advancing attack plans against Israeli soldiers and civilians and working to restore the organisation's capabilities, and described this as a systematic violation of the ceasefire. The statement added that IDF forces under Southern Command are deployed in the area.

What the announcement rests on

Every element of this account comes from the Israeli military. The IDF published it on its official Telegram channel and on X, and Israeli outlets including Ynet, N12, News.co.il and the Times of Israel reported the announcement rather than confirming its contents independently. Hamas has not been reported as commenting on the claim in the material available, and there is no separate account from Gaza authorities of the strike or of who was killed in it.

What the reports do not say

The reports do not describe the man's rank or role within the Nukhba force beyond calling him an operative in Hamas's military wing, and they do not say what unit he belonged to or where in Israel he is alleged to have crossed. They do not specify the time of the strike, the type of munition or aircraft used, or the precise location within the Khan Younis area.

They do not say whether anyone else was killed or injured. Nor do they explain how the military established his involvement in Steinberg's death, or why the announcement came several days after the strike itself. The description of the man recently promoting attacks and rebuilding Hamas capabilities is not accompanied by details of any specific plan. The IDF's characterisation of his activity as a breach of the ceasefire is the military's own, and the reports do not include a response to it.