Hamas Khan Yunis Brigade Commander Rafa’a Salameh was killed during a targeted strike by IDF fighter jets on Saturday in the al-Muwasi humanitarian area in southern Gaza, the IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) confirmed on Sunday after the Gaza terror group had confirmed the same.
Salameh is the third of Hamas’s five brigade commanders for all of Gaza to be killed over the course of the war, with two still at large.
The Hamas brigade commanders are the bedrock of the terror group’s field leadership much the same way that Israel has top commanders for its northern, central, and southern commands.
In addition, Salameh was known as being particularly close to Gaza Chief Yahya Sinwar and to Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, who was targeted in the same Saturday strike, but whose fate is still uncertain.
Salameh was known to be one of the few intermediaries with Sinwar for hostage negotiations, giving his death a broader impact beyond military issues.
More recently, Salameh was behind the Khan Yunis brigade trying to reconstitute itself as a rocket-firing threat against the southern portion of the Israeli-Gaza Corridor in order to try to undermine Jerusalem’s narrative that the war has subdued the Hamas rocket threat.
About Rafa'a Salameh
Salameh led much of the invasion plans from southern Gaza into the farthest south Israeli Gaza border towns for the October 7 massacre.
He joined Hamas in the early 1990s and was eventually appointed in 2016 to the position of commander of Hamas's Khan Yunis Al Qarara Battalion under the command of Mohammed Sinwar, who later joined Hamas’s high command counsel.
Salameh played a significant role in the abduction of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, the IDF noted.
During Operation Protective Edge in 2014, Salameh was in command of Hamas's combat support and defensive plans.
Besides being in charge of all rocket fire in the area, he was also in command of an operation during the 2021 Gaza conflict to launch a surprise attack on Israeli soldiers and villages via two attack tunnels from Khan Yunis.
During that operation, the IDF managed to kill 18 terrorists who attempted to infiltrate Israeli territory, thwarting the mini-invasion scheme.
Israel's security establishment overall believes that Deif was killed along with Salameh, but there is still no physical evidence.
Moreover, Hamas has admitted Salameh’s death, but explicitly denied Deif’s.
Last night, the deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, Khalil al-Hayya, told the Qatari state-funded broadcaster Al Jazeera that Deif had heard Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's victorious speech and laughed at it.
According to the IDF, the attacked complex belonged to Salameh and was registered in his name.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant met with air force personnel and complimented them on the attack and on the general qualitative advantage they give the IDF for operating within Gaza.