The Israeli military announced that four Hamas operatives were killed in strikes in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday. One strike in Khan Younis killed Mohammed Alyan al-Bayouk, whom the IDF identified as a member of Hamas's elite Nukhba Force. In a second strike in Rafah, the IDF says it killed three more operatives, named as Hammam Jaber al-Sayed Abu Labda, Mahmoud Abu Naameh, and Mohammed Hamad Shariq Abu Sultan. The military says all four had recently been advancing attacks on troops and Israeli civilians and working to restore Hamas's capabilities, "in systematic violation of the ceasefire." These claims come from the Israeli military and could not be independently verified.

A separate report has added a dramatic detail to the Khan Younis strike. The Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported that the Shin Bet phoned Bayouk before the strike and told him he had to choose between being killed alongside his family or being killed alone on the roof. According to the report, he chose to go up to the roof, where he was killed. That account has not been independently confirmed, and it raises questions about how warnings are used before strikes and how families are affected. The strikes are the latest in a series of Israeli operations against people it accuses of violating the ceasefire, and they leave open how long the truce can hold.