The IDF reported that on the evening of May 26, Yassin Rabia, the commander of Hamas's West Bank headquarters, was eliminated in Rafah. Khaled Nagar, a senior official in Hamas's West Bank wing, was killed in the same strike.
The Israeli Air Force, the Military Intelligence Directorate, and the Shin Bet secret service conducted the operation. The IDF drone struck the target in the Tal al-Sultan area in the northwest of Rafah.
Hamas's West Bank wing is responsible for the planning, funding, and carrying out of terror attacks throughout the West Bank and within Israel.
According to Israeli intelligence, Yassin Rabia oversaw all Hamas military groups in the West Bank and was personally responsible for terrorist attacks in 2001 and 2002 that killed IDF soldiers.
Khaled Nagar was a senior figure in the West Bank headquarters, primarily responsible for orchestrating rocket attacks but also involved in other terrorist activities. Between 2001 and 2003, he carried out several attacks that killed Israeli civilians and wounded or killed IDF soldiers.
The IDF is investigating reports that the strike on the militants ignited a fire in a tent camp for displaced people in Rafah.
Hamas-operated Gaza's Health Ministry claims that at least 30 people were killed and many others injured in the fire.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades announced that their member Khalid Ramadan was also killed in the IDF strike in Rafah. Ramadan was one of Fatah's militant leaders in Gaza, although he had previously been a Hamas activist. On October 20, 1998, he killed two Israelis – Shlomo Libman and Ariel Ben-Nun. Ramadan was captured and later released in the Shalit deal.
