Israeli forces kill Islamic Jihad commander tied to Yagil Yaakov abduction

The IDF and Shin Bet said Sunday that Zaki Yusuf Mahmoud Abu Mustafa, a commander in Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s Khan Younis brigade, was killed in Gaza on Friday. The military said he took part in the October 7 assault on Kibbutz Nir Oz and was involved in the abduction of 12-and-a-half-year-old Yagil Yaakov. The army said it has video evidence placing him inside Israel during the kidnapping.

Security officials said Abu Mustafa had recently worked to restore the group’s capabilities in the Gaza Strip, in violation of the ceasefire agreement, and was advancing terror plots against Israeli troops. They also said he attempted to organize training for militants inside Nasser Hospital in order to avoid being targeted during military activity. The IDF said he posed an immediate threat to forces in the area and was killed in a precision strike.

In a separate strike, the IDF said it also killed Muhammad Osama Abdul Aziz Saba al-Aish, described as a Hamas Nukhba operative who tried to advance training and recruitment for the organization. The military said Southern Command forces remain deployed in the area in line with the agreement and will continue acting to remove any immediate threat.

The background to the case is the October 7, 2023 attack on Kibbutz Nir Oz, part of the broader massacre in the Gaza border communities, in which dozens of residents were murdered or kidnapped. Yagil Yaakov was taken along with family members; his father, Yair Yaakov, was abducted, later murdered in captivity, and his body returned to Israel under an agreement for the return of bodies. Yagil and his twin brother, Or, then 16, were held by Hamas in Gaza and released in the hostage deal in November 2023 after about 50 days. In a Ynet interview four months ago, Yagil said, “In Gaza I learned to get used to hunger, to understand that there is no food. The longing is stronger than I thought possible, as if your heart is being torn out. On one hand, I survived, and that is not simple. Why me and not others?”