Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) identified 43 more slain commanders, totaling 209 announcements in the past 2 months. Most of this tranche are platoon-level commanders and were killed in the first year of the war. The list includes 6 workers for the Hamas-run government. 🧵
Ahmed Jamal Khaled al-Bahtini (ID#: 801485285, age 37), the deputy commander of PIJ’s Darj al-Tuffah Battalion in the Gaza Brigade, was killed in an October 2023 airstrike. The extended al-Bahtini family is prominent in PIJ: Khalil Salah al-Bahtini was the group’s military leader in northern Gaza and was killed during the May 2023 Israel-PIJ conflict.
Ahmed Mohammed Hussein Abu al-Qumsan (ID#: 801250820, age 35), the deputy commander of PIJ’s al-Radwan and al-Nasser Battalion in the Gaza Brigade, was killed in an October 2024 airstrike.
Two drivers for the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry (MOH), one a volunteer, were identified as slain PIJ platoon commanders:
Mohammed Ali Ghanem Mohammed Abu Kamil (L, ID#: 801884313, age 35) was a platoon commander in PIJ’s rocket unit, Central Brigade. He is listed as a transport driver for the MOH, both on external trackers and an MOH dashboard. Abu Kamil was killed in an October 2023 airstrike.
Mahmoud Hosni Ibrahim Muharrab (R, ID#: 402962955, age 26), meanwhile, is identified by colleagues as a volunteer driver operating out of the al-Awda (Nuseirat) Hospital. He was a platoon commander in PIJ’s Armored Corps in the Central Brigade. Muharrab was killed in June 2024.
Two other commanders on the list worked for the MOH:
Raed Abdulhamid Khudeir Khudeir (L, ID#: 802615807, age 33) was a platoon commander in PIJ’s Khan Younis Brigade as well as an electrician in the MOH’s engineering and maintenance department (according to an MOH dashboard). He was killed in February 2024.
Ahmed Mahmoud Ahmed Miqdad (R, ID#: 802254573, age 34) worked in an administrative role in the MOH’s complaints unit, and was a platoon commander in PIJ’s rocket unit, Gaza Brigade. He was killed in March 2024.
Ahmed Zakaria Mohammed Barakat (ID#: 802464255, age 34), another platoon commander in PIJ’s rocket unit, Gaza Brigade, worked for the Gaza Electric Distribution Company (GEDCO) in an unspecified role, according to his social media.
Ahmed Nahed Mamdouh Abed (ID#: 410153894, age 31) was a field supervisor working for the Khan Younis municipality. He held an advanced degree in GIS, and was a support platoon commander in PIJ’s Khan Younis Brigade, Eastern Battalion.
Two brothers, Ahmed (Top R, ID#: 803321207, age 32) and Ramadan Luai Fouad al-Minawi (Bottom R, ID#: 804413359, age 30), were identified as platoon commanders in the signal corps and military site security, respctively, of PIJ's Gaza Brigade.
They join their father, Luai Fouad Yousef al-Minawi (L, ID#: 934883141, age 60), Deputy Commander of PIJ's military manufacturing unit, whose death was announced by PIJ in February.
Summary:
- Of 43 slain commanders, 2 were deputy battalion commanders, 2 were centralized unit commanders, and 39 were platoon-level commanders
- At least 39/43 were killed in the first year of the war, and at least 13 in the first month
- 37/43 appear on the Gaza Health Ministry death toll register as of November 2025 — platoon-level commanders have proven harder to find open-source information on, underscoring the limitations of this approach
7 of the 43 had an identifiable civilian role, including:
- 4 Health Ministry employees (non-medical)
- 2 municipal/utility employees (GEDCO and Khan Younis municipality)
⁃ 1 lawyer
Since February, PIJ has reported the deaths of 209 commanders, plus 15 high-level leaders before that for a total of 224. Hamas has also released the names of hundreds of commanders in recent months, though generally one-by-one and with much more footage. It is clear, as usual, that Hamas’ media apparatus and media archive is of a much higher caliber than PIJ’s.
On May 6, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) published another set of 17 of their slain commanders in Gaza, bringing the total identified since February to 292. This set includes journalists, health and education workers, and police and internal security personnel. 🧵
PIJ confirmed prior reporting first done by @MiddleEastBuka that Mohammed al-Saeed Ismail Abu Sakhil (ID#: 803231604, age 32), a journalist for the Sawt al-Quds Radio station, was a platoon commander in PIJ’s Financial Administration Unit in the Gaza Brigade. Both Sakhil and his brother (another journalist) were killed in fighting in and near Shifa Hospital in March-April 2024. x.com/GabrielEpstein…
Mohammed Abdulnasser Mohammed al-Masri (ID#: 802443788, age 33), a teacher and the husband of journalist Salam Khalil Mohammed Mayma (ID#: 802820001, age 32), was a commander in PIJ’s Central Coordination Unit in the Northern Brigade. Both al-Masri and Mayma, along with their three children, were killed in an October 2023 airstrike. More detail on their case is here: x.com/GabrielEpstein…
The likely target of an Oct 10, 2023 airstrike in Gaza that killed journalist Salam Khalil Mohammed Mayma (ID#: 802820001, age 32): her husband, PIJ commander Mohammed Abdulnasser Mohammed al-Masri (ID#: 802443788, age 33). 🧵
Today, PIJ claimed al-Masri as a commander in its Central Coordination Unit in the Northern Brigade. al-Masri was also a teacher at multiple schools, including a stretch at the Adnan al-Alami Secondary School for Boys in al-Shati neighborhood in Gaza City. al-Masri and Mayma reportedly wed in 2015.
Salam Khalil Mayma is included on the Committee to Protect Journalists, International Federation of Journalists, and the Hamas-run Government Media Office’s list of slain journalists in Gaza, as well as outside trackers.
Mayma was the head of the Women Journalists Committee at the Palestinian Media Assembly, which CPJ identified as a PIJ-affiliated body. CPJ lists her as a freelance journalist, while IFJ identifies her as a reporter for the PIJ-affiliated al-Quds Radio.
On May 2, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) published another set of 22 of their slain commanders in Gaza, bringing the total identified since February to 275. This set, which focuses largely on those is “specialized” roles, includes health, education, and sports workers.🧵
Raed Musa Ramadan al-Banna (ID#: 910736529, age 52), an administrative clerk at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, was a platoon commander in PIJ’s al-Jadida Battalion in the Gaza Brigade. al-Banna was killed in an October 2023 airstrike, which @MiddleEastBuka identified as the same strike which killed journalist Nazmi al-Nadim.
Shadi Rafiq Misbah Ayyad (ID#: 804454544, age 31), a teacher in the East Gaza Education Directorate, was a Platoon Commander in the Training Department of PIJ’s Gaza Brigade. Ayyad was killed in June 2025.
Yesterday (4/26), Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) published another set of 22 of their slain commanders in Gaza, bringing the total identified since February to 253. This addition includes civil defense and healthcare workers in dual roles, as well as lawyers.🧵
Ahmed Ismail Ahmed al-Buraim (ID#: 8800154916, age 43), a first lieutenant in Gaza’s Civil Defense, was also a platoon commander in PIJ’s Central Communications Unit in the Central Brigade.
He was killed in a July 2025 airstrike, alongside his son Mohammed Ahmed Ismail al-Buraim (ID#: 429672884, age 15), who appears to have been a child combatant based on videos posted to social media by his mother which show both Ahmed and Mohammed armed and in military uniform.
Tamer Mohammed Salman al-Humaidi (ID#: 906613740, age 42), an administrative services worker at al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, was a PIJ platoon commander within the weapons portfolio in the Central Brigade. He was killed in May 2024.
In the last two days, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) has identified 22 more slain commanders in Gaza, bringing the total claimed directly by the group in the last two months to 231. This tranche includes the Gaza director of Turkish NGO IHH and an imam. 🧵
Ahmed Kamel Abdulaziz Ayyad (ID#: 801489725, age 39) was the deputy commander of the al-Turkmen Battalion in PIJ’s Gaza Brigade. He was killed in a July 2025 airstrike.
Mohammed Jamal Faraj al-Mubayyad (ID#: 800691495, age 38) was a commander in PIJ’s Central Mobilization Unit in the Gaza Brigade, as well as the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation’s program director in Gaza. I analyzed the strike he was killed in last month.
Last week, a new U.N. Women report claimed that more than 38,000 women and girls were killed in Gaza between October 2023 and December 2025, or 47 per day. This is a speculative projection based on a projection, not a data point, and was widely misreported. 🧵
An initial problem is that the press release for the U.N. Women Advocacy Brief “The Cost of War in Gaza on Women and Girls” and the report itself say two different things: the press release (L) presents the 38,000 figure as fact while the report (R) is clear that it is an estimate, not a count.
News articles about the report, not surprisingly, largely use the incorrect framing of the press release. That’s a disservice to readers, and a failure both of U.N. Women to match the press release and report and of media organizations to check the details.