Gabriel Epstein Profile picture
Apr 22 9 tweets 10 min read Read on X
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. 🧵 Image
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.Image
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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. Image
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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.Image
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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.Image
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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.Image
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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.Image
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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.
Links:
Obituary lists (individual posters follow after each announcement): t.me/sarayaps/20182 (4/18)
t.me/sarayaps/20207 (4/20)

Previous analyses of PIJ obituary releases:
x.com/GabrielEpstein… (3/19, 43 commanders, part 1 of list of 85)
x.com/GabrielEpstein… (3/19, 42 commanders, part 2 of list of 85)
x.com/GabrielEpstein… (3/1, 20 commanders)
x.com/GabrielEpstein… (2/26, 20 commanders)
x.com/GabrielEpstein… (2/24, 41 commanders)

All MOH death toll register iterations: archive.org/details/moh-de…
MOH Dashboard: sehatty.ps/public/

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More from @GabrielEpsteinX

May 7
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. 🧵 Image
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…Image
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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…
Read 10 tweets
May 6
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). 🧵 Image
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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.Image
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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.Image
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Read 6 tweets
Apr 20
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. 🧵 Image
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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.Image
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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. Image
Read 17 tweets
Apr 14
Today, Hamas identified Mustafa Kamal Abdulqader Bakir (ID#: 800707911, age 36), a cameraman for the Hamas-affiliated al-Aqsa TV outlet, as a member of its military media and a commander in the Rafah Brigade’s Artillery Battalion. Bakir was killed in a Nov 2023 airstrike. 🧵 Image

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Bakir is listed as a slain journalist/media worker by the Committee to Protect Journalists, the International Federation of Journalists, the Hamas-run Government Media Office, and other trackers. Image
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The Hamas obituary video shows Bakir working with several types of rockets and in his media role. Some sections of the video are of a much younger Bakir, possibly from 2014 while others were shot recently. According to relatives, Bakir was injured in the 2008-2009 Israel-Hamas war, but it isn't clear if that was as part of combat or not.

As far as I'm aware, this is the first clear evidence that Bakir was a militant.Image
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Read 6 tweets
Apr 6
Ahmed Fathi Musleh Abu Ghali (ID#: 802316729, age 34), a commander in Hamas' Mohammed Abu Harb (al-Shaboura) Battalion in the Rafah Brigade killed in April 2025, was recently memorialized by the group. Ahmed's brother, journalist Zakaria Fathi Abu Ghali, was a PIJ commander. 🧵 Image

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Zakaria Fathi Abu Ghali was identified by PIJ as a commander in its military media unit in February 2026.
Ahmed and Zakaria, pictured at center and left respectively in this 2020 picture, illustrate that even members of the same family unit may join different militant groups. While family names may be prominently associated with one armed group or another (like al-Najjar with Hamas), individual members often go their own way.Image
Read 5 tweets
Apr 5
Tariq Omar Salama Maarouf (ID#: 410136378, age 50), brother of Salama Maarouf, head of the Hamas-run Government Media Office (a key vector of Hamas’ propaganda effort), was a commander in Hamas’ Darj al-Tuffah Battalion in the Gaza Brigade. He was killed in Oct 2023. 🧵 Image

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Tariq Maarouf was killed alongside Rifaat Mahmoud Issa Abbas (ID#: 901472274, age 45) and Ibrahim Mahmoud Ibrahim Jadba (ID#: 931643811, age 41), respectively the commander and deputy commander of the Darj al-Tuffah Battalion, in an October 26, 2023 airstrike. Hamas' obituary announcement does not specify Maarouf’s role beyond calling him a commander, while the IDF claimed he was the battalion’s combat support commander.Image
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At the time, the Hamas-Government Media Office (GMO) issued a statement mourning Tariq Maarouf as a “mujahid commander” and clearly identifying him as GMO head Salama Maarouf’s brother. The GMO has frequently served as a generator or amplifier of some of Hamas’ more outlandish claims.Image
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Read 9 tweets

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