Gaza terrorist who kidnapped Noa Argamani, Avinatan Or on Oct. 7 killed in strike — IDF
Times of Israel · LC · trust 30/100
A top commander in a Gazan terror group, who took part in abducting Avinatan Or and Noa Argamani , and who directed the abduction of Sudthisak Rinthalak during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, onslaught, was killed in an Israeli strike in the Gaza Strip this week, the Israel Defense Forces announced on Friday.
The military said the strike on Tuesday in southern Gaza killed Ahmed Hussein Mohammed Kafina, commander of the central Gaza area for the Mujahideen Brigades, a relatively small Hamas-allied terror group in the Strip.
“Kafina planned and directed the group’s terrorists’ raid into the territory of the State of Israel during the October 7 massacre, and took part in the abduction of Avinatan Or and Noa Argamani, and in directing the abduction of Sudthisak Rinthalak,” the military said.
Rinthalak was killed in the onslaught, and his body was taken to Gaza and later returned by Hamas. Argamani was rescued by the IDF in 2024 and Or was released from Gaza last year. Video of the abduction from the Nova music festival of Argamani and Or, who were a couple, became one of the most widely circulated pieces of footage from the massacre.
As it has said regarding other terror commanders killed in recent strikes, amid a ceasefire in the Strip, the IDF said that Kafina had recently planned attacks on troops and Israeli civilians.
“The terrorist posed an immediate threat to the troops and was eliminated in a precise aerial strike,” the military said.
Another Hamas commander who invaded Israel on October 7 and held Israeli hostages Romi Gonen and Cpl. Noa Marciano in captivity in the Gaza Strip was killed in an airstrike on Thursday, the military and Shin Bet also announced.
The Thursday strike in Gaza City killed Abd al-Rahim Abd al-Hay Youssef Kardi, a deputy commander of a Hamas cell, who also served as a doctor at Shifa Hospital, according to the military.
“Kardi infiltrated Israeli territory during the October 7 massacre,” the military said.
The IDF said that at the start of the war, Kardi was involved in holding Gonen hostage in Gaza City, including at Shifa Hospital, and he was also involved in holding the body of Marciano, a surveillance soldier, after she had been murdered in captivity until her remains were recovered by the army.
The military justified the strike amid the ceasefire by saying that Kardi had been recently planning attacks on troops and Israeli civilians.
“The terrorist posed a threat to the troops and was eliminated in an aerial strike,” the army said.
צה"ל ושב"כ תקפו אתמול במרחב העיר עזה, וחיסלו את המחבל עבד אלרחים עבד אלחי יוסף כרדי, סגן ראש חולייה בזרוע הצבאית של ארגון הטרור חמאס ששימש במקביל כרופא בבית החולים שיפאא'.
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) July 31, 2026
Additionally, two Hamas operatives who were advancing attacks on troops were killed in strikes in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, the military said on Friday. The IDF said the strikes killed Muhammad al-Abed, a supply officer, and Ahmad Ma’in Muhammad Anqar, a commander in the terror group.
Abed had been involved in “smuggling weapons into the Gaza Strip and digging smuggling tunnels while supplying weapons to the military wings,” during the war, according to the IDF.
The IDF likewise said that recently, both operatives had been advancing attacks.
“The terrorists posed a threat to IDF troops and were eliminated in precise aerial strikes,” the military added.
The statements on the strikes came after US President Donald Trump announced that the US-backed Board of Peace had reached an agreement on the “complete disarmament of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza,” as part of his 20-point plan for Gaza.
The proposal would see Hamas — over an eight-month period — gradually hand over its weapons to a Palestinian technocratic committee that is tasked with governing the Strip, an Arab diplomat familiar with the negotiations said Thursday.
However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office issued a statement pouring cold water on the deal by claiming that the proposal did not meet Israel’s demands for a full demilitarization of Gaza in exchange for any Israeli withdrawals from the Strip.
Several Palestinians were wounded in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza hours after Trump announced the deal, Gaza medics said.
There was no immediate comment from the IDF on the reported strike.
The IDF says it only targets terror operatives in its strikes, but that these fighters often operate from within the civilian population.
Inside a tent encampment in Gaza City, where women were busy filling plastic jerrycans with water, displaced Palestinians urged Trump to compel Israel to abide by the agreement.
“You Trump, you should start it from your end, ceasefire, stop the assassinations and complete the Israeli army’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip,” said Samir Ayad, 60.
The fragile ceasefire deal reached in October 2025 largely halted a two-year-long war between Israel and Hamas that began with the October 7 onslaught.
The heaviest fighting has subsided, but at least 1,100 people have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire took effect, according to the territory’s Hamas-run Health Ministry. The toll does not differentiate between combatants and civilians and is not verified, though Israel has generally accepted Hamas’s tally.
Gunmen have continued to carry out shooting attacks on Israeli troops, and Israel says its strikes are in response to those and other violations. Five Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire began.
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