The Israel Defense Forces and Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet) killed Muhammad Yazouri, commander of Hamas’s Khan Yunis Brigade, in a strike in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday night, the security forces said in a joint statement on Friday.

Yazouri was appointed to the position after serving in several senior roles in the brigade, including deputy commander, commander of the Combat Support Battalion and head of its Intelligence Department.

According to the statement, Yazouri was responsible for directing Hamas terrorists to attack Israeli troops and civilians.

In recent months, he worked to advance dozens of attacks on IDF troops and sought to rebuild the brigade’s capabilities after it suffered significant damage during the war, the statement said.

Also killed in the strike were Hudheifa Muammar, a company commander, and Muhammad Bahjat Rashi, another terrorist serving in the Khan Yunis Brigade.

The IDF said that precautions were taken to minimize harm to civilians, including the use of precision munitions and aerial surveillance.

In a separate strike in the Khan Yunis area on Thursday, the IDF and Shin Bet killed Moamen Jabr al-Sayed Abu Labda, who was head of a sniper cell in Hamas’s Rafah Brigade, the security bodies said.

The terrorist carried out sniper training across the Gaza Strip aimed at harming Israeli civilians and IDF troops operating in the area of the Yellow Line, according to the statement. Recently, he attempted to reconstitute Hamas’s capabilities, in systematic violation of the ceasefire, and he was targeted in order to remove the threat he posed, the IDF said.

“IDF troops under the Southern Command remain deployed in the area in accordance with the agreement and will continue to operate to remove any immediate threat,” the military stated.

Also on Thursday, the military said that it had eliminated Ismail Ibrahim Darwish Kandil, a Hamas Nukhba Force terrorist, in a strike in the Khan Yunis area on Sept. 7.

The terrorist infiltrated Israel and took part in the killing of Nahal Brigade commander Col. Yonatan Steinberg during the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, according to the IDF.

Recently, Kandil advanced attacks against Israeli troops and civilians and worked to restore Hamas’s capabilities, in systematic violation of the ceasefire.

IDF turns ‘real terror town’ into ruins

Also on Thursday, the head of the IDF Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade said that his forces have completed the destruction of the tunnel network in the northeastern Gaza city of Beit Hanun.

Hamas’s underground routes in Beit Hanun were “among the most extensive I have seen,” Col. Omri Mashiah told troops at a Rosh Hashanah toast, Channel 12 News reported.

“With great determination, professionalism and hard work, we completed the mission of destroying them,” he continued.

The colonel said Hamas had turned Beit Hanun into “a real terror town,” but noted that “today, we are overlooking its ruins.”

The toast took place at Ridge 70, a natural mound that once granted terrorists in the Gaza Strip an elevated point from which they could fire at Kibbutz Nahal Oz.

“This is the ground that allows us to defend, and it is also the ground that allows us to attack if necessary,” Mashiah told soldiers.