Gabriel Epstein Profile picture
Feb 26 9 tweets 6 min read Read on X
Today, Palestinian Islamic Jihad announced 20 more commanders killed in Gaza, including journalists, the head of therapeutic nutrition at Nasser Hospital, and other figures. A few highlights below and a summary: 🧵 Image
Ayman Suleiman Abu Tayr (ID#: 801367459, age 39), a commander in PIJ’s Central Operations Unit, was also a licensed nurse and the head of Nasser Hospital’s Therapeutic Nutrition Unit. He was killed in a June 2025 airstrike. Image
Image
Alaa Sobh Hamouda al-Hour (ID#: 803500826, age 31), a commander in PIJ’s Financial Administration Unit, was also a psychological counselor at the government-run Muin Bseiso elementary school in Khan Younis. al-Hour was killed in an October 2023, airstrike. Image
Image
Image
Zakaria Fathi Musleh Abu Ghali (ID#: 800705998, age 36), a commander in PIJ’s Central Military Media Unit, was also a journalist for the PIJ-affiliated al-Quds al-Youm. Abu Ghali is not listed by the CPJ or IFJ as a journalist, but he is by other trackers. He was killed in a February 2024 airstrike.Image
Image
Sami Musa Abdulkarim Daoud (ID#: 801556390, age 39), a commander in PIJ’s Central Information Unit, was also a cameraman for the government-run Rawafed educational channel. He is not listed as a journalist by the CPJ or IFJ, but is by other trackers. Image
Image
Mohammed Fayez Abd al-Hassani (ID#: 803140169, age 34), a commander in PIJ’s Central Operations Unit, was also the executive director of the Rawasi Palestine Foundation and a journalist who wrote occasional articles. He was killed in an October 2023 airstrike, and is not listed by the CPJ, but by the IFJ and some other trackers.Image
Image
Image
Some other interesting details: Zaki Ishtawi Mohammed al-Masri (ID#: 931661839, age 42), signal corps commander in PIJ's Central Brigade, was killed in an airstrike in the al-Aqsa hospital courtyard in September 2024. Image
Meanwhile, Samer Shehadeh Jabr al-Nuwairi (ID#: 400764163, age 29), commander in PIJ's Central Information Unit, was killed in a strike near a soup kitchen operated by the Qawatef al-Khair foundation, which has been sanctioned by the U.S. for ties to Hamas. Image
Image
Image
In sum, of 20 PIJ commanders:
- 11 are tied to central PIJ units
- 9 are unit heads at the brigade level

5/20 have a known dual civilian role including:
- 3 journalists/media workers
- 1 medical worker — the head of Nasser Hospital’s therapeutic nutrition department
- 1 medical/educational worker — a psychological counselor at a government-run school

All 20 commanders can be found on the November 2025 MOH death toll list.Image

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Gabriel Epstein

Gabriel Epstein Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @GabrielEpsteinX

Feb 24
UPDATING THREAD: Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) has released a sizable list of high-ranking commanders killed during the war, particularly second-in-commands of many key units. Notable IDs, including journalists, doctors, and others below.🧵 Image
Image
Mahdi Hassan Mohammed al-Mamlouk (ID#: 801389321, 38) was the deputy head of PIJ's central communications unit as well as a broadcast engineer for PIJ's satellite channel, al-Quds al-Youm TV. He was killed in a Nov 2024 airstrike, and is listed by the CPJ and IFJ (though not the Hamas-run GMO) as a journalist.Image
Image
Image
Image
Fadi Jihad Mohammed al-Wadiyya (ID# 802854323, age 33) , a physiotherapist working for Doctors Without Borders, was ID'd by the IDF as a PIJ member shortly after he was killed in a June 2024 airstrike. Today, PIJ confirmed that al-Wadiyya was the deputy head of their military manufacturing unit. Image
Image
Read 11 tweets
Feb 24
Mohammed Akram Abdullah al-Kafarna (40), head of the Palestinian Nursing Association and nursing supervisor at Kamal al-Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, was a Hamas militant killed in the Beit Hanoun area in September 2025. 🧵 Image
Image
al-Kafarna's death was announced in late September 2025 by a major Hamas media Telegram channel, among a set of 13 militants killed the north Gaza neighborhood following heavy IDF operations. His picture appears at 00:34 in the video below. Image

Image
Memorial posts refer to al-Kafarna as a “mujahid” and sometimes as a commander. al-Kafarna is not listed in the Nov 2025 Gaza Health Ministry death toll list. Since he died in an inaccessible area of Beit Hanoun and is unlikely to have arrived at a hospital, this implies that either his family has not yet reported his death or the Health Ministry has not yet processed it.Image
Image
Read 6 tweets
Feb 19
A new Gaza death toll list provided to the Israeli newspaper @haaretz by the Hamas-run Gaza MOH has been released (the 13th iteration), containing 68,820 non-duplicate entries and covering up to November 10, 2025. Very long analysis of data quality, demographics, and unknowns: Image
Like all published MOH lists, the November list does not distinguish between civilians and combatants and attributes all listed deaths uniformly to Israeli action. Nor does it include dates of death (no list has) or collection methodology (some earlier iterations did).
The new list contains 68,844 reported deaths, 99.91% of which have complete information. See my previous analysis for more on why “completeness” is only one of several relevant metrics, including validity and accuracy, to use when assessing the MOH list. Image
Read 26 tweets
Feb 14
New posts on popular Gazan militant obituary channels show that the police director of the Kerem Shalom crossing, Bassem Salah Mohammed Ghubn, was a longstanding member of Hamas and a lifelong friend of Alaa al-Hadidi, supply chief in Hamas' manufacturing headquarters. 🧵 Image
Ghubn and Hadidi are described as lifelong friends who both joined the "military wing" of Hamas in the Second Intifada, then took on command roles in different parts of the group. Ghubn later became a police colonel and was appointed head of the Kerem Shalom crossing. Image
Image
Image
Ghubn was killed in a December 2023 airstrike, while Hadidi was killed in November 2025 alongside the head of Patient Affairs at Shifa Hospital, Khalil Amr al-Serry.
Read 5 tweets
Feb 10
Major find by @MiddleEastBuka -- identifying Ibrahim Zaanin as the terrorist who murdered Sapir Bilmes (24) and Karin Vernikov (22) outside Kibbutz Alumim on October 7. Zaanin was killed in an airstrike yesterday in Gaza City (details below).
More obituary posters of Zaanin: Image
Image
Image
Image
Read 4 tweets
Feb 9
Today's strike on an apartment in the al-Nasr neighborhood of west Gaza City killed at least two militants from Hamas' Beit Hanoun Battalion: Ibrahim Farid Shaaban Zaanin and Ahmed Kamal Swailam, who are described as "heroic mujahideen". 🧵 Image
Image
Image
Image
Ibrahim Zaanin is described repeatedly as a mujahid and a "hunter of vehicles", making it likely he was part of an RPG/anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) team. Image
Image
Image
Image
Ahmed Swailam is described as a Qassam commander in the elite Nukhba force and as a sniper, referencing the locally made "Ghoul" rifle. Some channels uploaded combat footage allegedly of Swailam fighting in Beit Hanoun last year. Image

Image
Image
Read 6 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(