12 said killed in IDF Gaza strikes, including senior Islamic Jihad commander

The Israel Defense Forces launched a wave of airstrikes in the Gaza Strip overnight and on Sunday morning, saying it targeted terror operatives in response to a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire a night prior.

At least 12 people were killed in the strikes, Hamas authorities said, with media reports saying that the dead included a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander.

The IDF, in a statement, said it had targeted terror operatives in northern Gaza, Gaza City, and Khan Younis, after five Palestinian gunmen emerged from a tunnel and approached troops on the Israeli side of the ceasefire line on Saturday night.

The targeted terror operatives “had recently been working to restore the capabilities of the terror organizations in the Strip and were advancing terror attacks against IDF troops and the State of Israel,” the military said.

Among those killed in the strikes was a Hamas terrorist — named as Ahmad Bayouk — who infiltrated the Re’im military base during the October 7, 2023, onslaught, according to the IDF.

“The IDF views any violation of the ceasefire agreement with utmost severity and will continue to operate against any attempt by terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip to carry out attacks against IDF troops and the State of Israel,” the military added.

According to Palestinian media reports, an Israeli airstrike on western Gaza City’s Tel al-Hawa killed a senior commander in the al-Quds Brigades, Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s wing, and wounded several other people.

Media outlets, including the PIJ-affiliated Palestine Today channel, identified the commander as Sami al-Dahdouh, 56.

Dahdouh’s three brothers, including former Quds Brigades commander Khaled Dahdouh, were reportedly assassinated by Israel in separate attacks in Gaza some two decades ago. Other than Dahdouh, the identities of people reported killed were not immediately published in major Palestinian outlets.

صورة | القيادي في سرايا القدس الشهيد سامي الدحدوح الذي اغتاله الاحتلال بقصف استهدفه في مدينة غزة. pic.twitter.com/34ognHUFKi

— فلسطين أون لايـن (@F24online) February 15, 2026

The Gaza civil defense agency, which operates as a rescue force under Hamas authorities, said one strike hit a tent of displaced people in northern Gaza and another targeted an area in the south.

Five people were killed and several injured when a separate airstrike targeted a tent sheltering displaced people in Jabalia in the north, the agency said in a statement.

“Israel doesn’t understand ceasefires or truces,” said Osama Abu Askar, who said his nephew was killed in the Jabalia strike. He said the people killed there were hit as they slept.

“We’ve been living under a truce for months, and they’ve still targeted us. Israel operates on this principle — saying one thing and doing another,” Abu Askar told AFP.

Five more people were killed and several injured in a separate early-morning strike in the southern city of Khan Younis, the city’s Nasser Hospital announced. According to the hospital, all five were men in their 20s.

Rami Shaqra told the Associated Press that his son, al-Baraa, was among a group of gunmen who were “securing the area” when they were killed by an airstrike. AP footage from the morgue showed at least two of the men had headbands denoting membership in Hamas’s military wing.

The civil defense agency also said that one person was killed by Israeli gunfire in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza. The reports did not differentiate between civilians and terror operatives.

Hazem Qassem, a Hamas spokesperson in Gaza, accused Israel of committing a new “massacre” against displaced Palestinians. A military official called Sunday’s strikes “precise” and in line with international law.

In a separate incident on Sunday, the military said several Palestinians who were carrying out “suspicious activity on the ground” and approaching troops in the northern Gaza Strip were targeted in an airstrike.

According to the IDF, troops of the Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade identified the terror operatives on the Israeli side of the Yellow Line. The army said that in addition to “carrying out suspicious activity on the ground,” the operatives approached the soldiers “in a manner that posed an immediate threat.”

After they were identified, the Israeli Air Force struck and “eliminated two of the terrorists to remove the threat,” the IDF said. It did not specify what happened to the others.

Meanwhile, the IDF also announced that a strike on Monday, in response to an attack by gunmen on troops in southern Gaza’s Rafah a day prior, killed a Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander.

Azem Abu Huli, who headed Islamic Jihad’s elite forces in the Strip’s center, was responsible for supplying weapons to other terror operatives, as well as advancing attacks against troops, the army said.

Abu Huli also commanded Islamic Jihad terrorists who invaded Israel on October 7, and throughout the war, also trained operatives “to practice scenarios involving the abduction of IDF soldiers,” the IDF added.

Nasser Hospital warns MSF over suspending work due to ‘armed men’

Meanwhile, after Doctors Without Borders announced it was suspending nonessential activities at Nasser Hospital due to the presence of gunmen, the hospital on Sunday accused the aid group, known by its French acronym MSF, of “aiding in manufacturing consent” for potential attacks on the southern Gaza medical center.

The Khan Younis hospital said there will be “foreseeable and grave consequences” if MSF does not retract the statement.

In the English-language press release via the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, the hospital claimed the presence of armed men “is aimed at securing safety for the staff and patients.”

According to the hospital, the armed men seen on site are not military personnel but rather police carrying out “protective, civilian and lawful” action against “uncontrolled individuals and groups” that have attacked the hospital.

“Despite full transparency and repeated clarification, MSF issued statements that misrepresent facts and mirror narratives historically used to justify attacks on hospitals,” Nasser Hospital said. “MSF is aiding in manufacturing consent for attacks against the hospital.”

The hospital issued a “formal notice” to MSF to “immediately retract” its allegations.

“Failure to do so risks material contribution to the endangerment of a protected medical facility, with foreseeable and grave consequences,” said the hospital.

Last week, MSF said it was suspending its work at the facility due to “a recent situation of suspicion of movement of weapons.” The aid group also said that armed men had been arresting patients.

Israel has long offered evidence of medical facilities’ regular use by Palestinian terror groups as bases of operations due to their protected status. Hostages have also said they were held at Nasser Hospital.

Last year a doctor who also serves as a spokesperson for Nasser Hospital hinted that he had been threatened by Palestinian Islamic Jihad due to his refusal to let the terror group’s operatives enter and use the hospital.

Israel announced earlier this month that it was terminating all the organization’s  activities in Gaza and the West Bank after it failed to provide a list of its Palestinian staff. MSF slammed the move, which takes effect on March 1, as a “pretext” to obstruct aid. Israel has accused MSF of having at least two employees who held membership in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas terror groups.

MSF has been a key provider of medical and humanitarian aid in Gaza, particularly since the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led invasion and massacre in southern Israel triggered a two-year war in the enclave.