According to the IDF, Wednesday’s strikes also targeted Hamas infrastructure and operatives across several sites in Gaza.
Abdallah Abu Shamala, head of Hamas’s Navy in Gaza, and Fadi Abu Mustafa, a senior tunnel engineer in the Khan Yunis Brigade, were killed during IDF strikes on Wednesday, the military confirmed in a joint statement with the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) on Thursday.
The operation followed Hamas’s violation of the ceasefire agreement and was guided by joint intelligence. According to the IDF and ISA, Abu Mustafa also took part in holding hostages captive, including Nimrod Cohen and David Cunio.
Abu Shamala advanced attacks against Israeli forces and maritime targets throughout the war, according to the IDF.
According to the IDF, Wednesday’s strikes also targeted Hamas infrastructure and operatives across several sites in Gaza.
Smoke rises from Gaza following an explosion, as seen from Israel, May 16, 2025. (credit: REUTERS/AMMAR AWAD)
Multiple ceasefire violations in Gaza
In recent weeks, Israeli officials and analysts have warned that Hamas is seeking to rebuild and test the ceasefire’s limits. In contrast, Israeli forces have responded to multiple threats and attempts to enter the IDF-controlled ‘Yellow Line.’
On Wednesday, Israeli troops stationed behind the Yellow Line found an eight-tubed rocket launcher with four rockets aimed at Israel while clearing the area.
In addition, during a separate operation by the Kfir Brigade, several weapons were found, including Kalashnikov rifles, fragmentation grenades, explosives, magazines, and military uniforms.
Recent incidents between Israel and Hamas have proven just how fragile the ceasefire remains.
Today, Monday, Israel wakes to a bittersweet truth. Every living hostage is home. Too many families, however, welcomed only a coffin. In the past day, Hamas returned additional remains, and the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed through the Red Cross that “Israel has received… the bodies of two hostages.”
The war did not end with the last helicopter landing. Our soldiers are still in harm’s way, and our civilians remain under threat.
Overnight, the IDF reported that Palestinian terrorists in the Rafah area fired on Israeli troops and vowed to “take firm action” in response. A subsequent update said the attackers “fired RPGs and carried out sniper fire” at forces operating there. Independent reporting described Israeli strikes in southern Gaza after militants “attacked Israeli troops with an RPG,” underscoring how fragile the truce remains.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed Israel’s armed forces to respond with force against Gazan terror targets before later ordering the closure of all Gaza crossings and the halting of all aid into the Strip. The decision comes after an IDF announcement of strikes against Hamas in Rafah after the terror group fired an anti-tank missile and gunfire toward Israeli soldiers.
Netanyahu’s initial order that Israel respond forcefully came during a consultation with Defense Minister Israel Katz and the heads of Israel’s security establishment, according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office.
Family and friends mourn at the funeral of Uriel Baruch, in Jerusalem on October 19, 2025. Baruch was taken hostage by Hamas into Gaza on October 7 and murdered in captivity. Hamas released his body to Israel a few days ago. (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)
This is the moment to be clear about first principles. The deal that brought our people home also requires Hamas to deliver the deceased it can access. It has not. Recent tallies said the latest handover “brings the count of returned bodies to 12,” with “another 16… still to be returned,” and that “all 28 were supposed to have been handed over by last Monday.”
Hamas has told mediators it needs specialist recovery equipment to reach others under the ruins, but that does not erase its obligation to complete what it promised. A promise is a promise. Keep it.
US envoys arrive at inflection point
Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff: your visit arrives at an inflection point. Help transform the current outline into enforceable steps with dates, verification, and consequences. Press for third-party monitoring of handovers, coordinated access for recovery teams, and a clear matrix that links continued relief to measurable compliance.
Urge the mediators to treat delays as violations, not as atmospherics. Encourage both sides to keep humanitarian channels open when the guns fall silent and when they do not. The goal is simple and absolutely non-negotiable. Finish the first chapter of this deal before you write the second.
Israel, for its part, must continue treating the fallen with dignity and transparency. The most recent remains were transferred to the National Center of Forensic Medicine for identification. This careful, professional process gives families the truth they deserve.
At the same time, the state must protect its troops and civilians when attacked. The government has instructed the IDF to respond firmly to violations while upholding the ceasefire architecture. This is not belligerence; it is the minimum duty of a state to its soldiers.
A second journey begins
Families of the fallen are now beginning a second journey, one measured in identification updates, funerals, and empty chairs. The state owes them clarity about timelines and respect in its language. That means candid briefings on the painstaking forensic work, timely notification before any public statements, and resources for mourning that do not vanish after the first week.
It also means national solidarity that resists the urge to turn pain into politics. The return of remains is not a public relations milestone. It is a covenant with citizens who entrusted their children to the country and deserve truth, dignity, presence, and accountability.
There is also a broader context that matters. Even as bodies are exchanged, each side accuses the other of testing the truce. Hamas’s line today was to blame Israel for “violations,” while acknowledging that more bodies were being handed over. The facts remain stark. Twenty living Israelis came home. Not all the deceased have. Both can be true, and both demand action.
The moral horizon has not changed since October 7. Kidnapping civilians was a crime. Holding them for two years compounded it. Withholding prolongs the cruelty. Israel is right to insist on the return of every person, alive or deceased. The deal created a path. Stay on it. Finish it. Bring them all back.
The siblings of fallen soldiers expressed that they require further government support, similar to what widows or parents receive.
Siblings of fallen soldiers told a Thursday Knesset IDF Human Resources Subcommittee panel that they lacked government support amid a sharp rise in bereaved families since the start of the Israel-Hamas War.
Arie Moalem, the head of the Defense Ministry’s Families, Commemoration, and Heritage Department, discussed the impact that the war has had and the spike in bereaved family members in the country since.
“The last two years of the war are like 26 years of work and 26 years of funerals,” he said.
“We have added more than 6,500 people to the circle of bereavement. We reached a peak of 90 funerals in a single day.”
The meeting was led by MK Elazar Stern (Yesh Atid), where bereaved family members spoke about various issues they have struggled with since the loss of their loved ones.
Bereaved families, friends and Israeli soldiers visit the graves of fallen soldier during Memorial Day which commemorates the fallen Israeli soldiers and victims of terror at Mount Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem on April 30, 2025. (credit: Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Numerous siblings of fallen soldiers spoke on the complex situations they have found themselves in, expressing that they require further government support, similar to what widows or parents receive.
A sister who lost her brother in combat told those at the committee that siblings often fill in for their grieving parents, while still mourning the loss of their brother or sister themselves.
Speaking as a new olah to the country, the bereaved sister said that when her brother died, she was the one who had to translate for her mother as to whether his body was recognizable or not.
Bereaved siblings also need to take care of parents
She said that as a bereaved sibling, “we have no address to turn to,” noting that many who lose a brother or a sister in combat are often young, working, or students. They then find themselves having to help care for their grieving parents while receiving little government help in the process.
“I had to take care of my parents, but I would still need to go to work and study,” she told the panel, adding that “there is no government body to represent me as a bereaved sister.”
“We need such a body to represent us and push legislation for us,” she continued, calling on MKs to find a solution.
Another bereaved sibling lost his brother in combat, whom, he said, he was very close to. He told the committee about the challenge of navigating the needs of his parents while also grieving the loss of his brother and losing his job.
When his parents were grieving, he “was the one who had to run between [his] mother and father,” the bereaved brother told the committee.
The brother said that other than psychological help, no financial support was offered to him, and criticized that such aid was provided to parents or widows, but not to siblings.
“There was no government body to look out for me,” he said, “I would need to go to work every day and just cry there.”
The unarmed individuals may have been migrant workers.
Four foreign nationals were arrested by the IDF on Friday evening after they were caught attempting to illegally cross into Israel via the border from Jordan in the Yarmouk area.
The four were taken in for questioning.
Army Radio reported that the unarmed detained parties had been migrant workers.
The attempted infiltration came only a day after two soldiers were killed by a terrorist entering the West Bank from Jordan. The terrorist, who was driving humanitarian aid to Gaza, opened fire on the soldiers after entering through the Allenby Bridge crossing.
An Israeli military vehicle waits at a barrier, at the Allenby Bridge Crossing between the West Bank and Jordan, September 8, 2024. (credit: REUTERS/AMMAR AWAD)
Entering Israel through Jordan
The Jordan border has been a frequently used route for both undocumented migrant workers to enter Israel and as a route for human trafficking, as the war has frequently restricted access to Israel through air travel.
While increasingly popular, the journey carries significant risks. In February, 47-year-old Indian national Thomas Gabriel Perera was killed by Jordanian security forces while attempting to cross into Israel for work.
The family of Perera claimed that he was the victim of a job scam, and was lured to Jordan for a well-paying job – one that failed to materialize. After failing to find work, Perera’s family said he tried to enter Israel in search of employment.
Israel has always wrestled with questions of motivation, service, and sacrifice. Yet when tested, the country has rediscovered its resolve.
The IDF on Wednesday announced plans to call up some 60,000 reservists over the next two weeks in preparation for a large-scale assault on Gaza City.
News of the call-ups will spark speculation about battle fatigue among reservists and their families, how many will report, and how strong their motivation will be. Inevitably, there will be comparisons to the immediate aftermath of October 7, 2023, when some 360,000 reservists were called up in the largest mobilization since the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
Then, the response was overwhelming. Israelis cut short trips abroad, postponed studies, left new jobs, and rushed to their units. The figure most often cited was 130% turnout, meaning scores of men and women not even called up reported for duty. Some reservists told of a lack of weapons to hand out to all who showed up.
Fast forward nearly two years. The enthusiasm has faded. The war drags on, 50 hostages remain in Gaza, and questions about leadership and strategy weigh heavily. Reservists, who have already put their civilian lives on hold multiple times since October 7, are being asked to do so again.
Some openly ask whether their sacrifice was squandered as the IDF returns to areas they have already fought in. Others complain that the war lacks a clear endgame, is being waged for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political survival, or that it is unconscionable to be called up again while the government seeks to exempt tens of thousands of yeshiva students from service.
Yet alongside this disenchantment runs another current: among regular soldiers, the 18- and 19-year-olds who make up the backbone of the IDF, motivation is surging. Surveys show 95% of draft-age youth who are going into the IDF actually do want to serve, with nearly three-quarters of eligible young men volunteering for combat units. Among women, too, more than half of those qualified now express a desire to serve in fighting units, a record high.
Israel in 2025: A country weary yet determined
This contrast – between exhausted reservists and energized conscripts – says much about Israel in August 2025. It is a country weary, yet determined; cynical about politics, yet convinced the war against Hamas is existential; fatigued, but far from broken.
The complaints of reservists and their families are as understandable as they are familiar. After the Second Lebanon War in 2006, after Operation Protective Edge in 2014, and after shorter Gaza campaigns, complaints about low reservist motivation abounded. Numbers were cited illustrating declining turnout, commanders fretted about morale, and commentators wondered whether Israeli society was tiring of seemingly endless wars.
But time and again, those predictions have proven exaggerated.
When the orders are issued, the reservists – perhaps not at 130% but at solid levels – report for duty. They may curse the government, complain about the lack of vision, demand an exit strategy, or gripe about a system that exempts large parts of the population, but when the call comes, they lace up their boots.
Before Operation Gideon’s Chariots in May, there was concern that turnout would be no more than 60%. While the IDF does not publicize these figures, the actual percentage far exceeded that, though it was short of the 130% of October 2023. In a Knesset committee meeting in May, Brig.-Gen. Rami Abudraham, then chief of staff of the Ground Forces, put the figure at “over 75%.”
Considering the number of days many reservists have served since October 7, often more than 300, that is impressive. Here lies the paradox: The frustration is real, but so is the commitment. Israelis argue, protest, and grumble – and then, for the most part, show up.
If the reservists represent the weariness of a society carrying the same burden repeatedly, the regular soldiers represent its renewal.
For years, the IDF worried about declining motivation. An IDF survey in 2019 showed only 64% of inductees were interested in combat units, down from 80% in 2010. The trend seemed clear: Individualism, hi-tech aspirations, and a culture that glorified private success over collective sacrifice were eroding the combat ethos.
Then came October 7. The Hamas massacre jolted the country and upended assumptions. Suddenly, teenagers who once sought hi-tech tracks like cyber or intelligence saw combat service as the most meaningful contribution they could make.
The numbers are dramatic. According to an IDF survey on motivation from January, reported in Israel Hayom in May, nearly three-quarters of men and more than half of women going into the army said they wanted to serve in combat. This year, 80% of those invited to often-grueling tryouts for elite units showed up, compared to just 55% before the war.
This is a strategic asset. While much of the West struggles to fill its military ranks, in Israel – now in its longest war since 1948 – young people are stepping forward in the greatest numbers in decades, with the glaring exception of most haredi (ultra-Orthodox) and Arab youth. That willingness speaks to a national spirit that, even battered and divided, remains strong.
It would be easy to read these stories as contradictory: a tired generation of reservists vs a motivated crop of teenagers. But they are better seen as two sides of the same coin.
Reservists’ fatigue reflects the price of endurance: careers disrupted, businesses shuttered, families strained. Their questions – “Where is this going?” – are not the complaints of whiners or shirkers but of citizens who have already given more than most democracies ever ask.
Conscripts’ enthusiasm reflects the renewal of purpose. For them, the current war is not an endless cycle but the defining national challenge of their generation, a moment to prove themselves and their turn to safeguard the country.
Together, these realities reveal a society waging war with fatigue and resolve. Israel’s wars have always been fought by both its fathers and its sons, sometimes literally together. Today, the fathers are growing weary, even as the sons remain eager. And both understand their service is essential.
What does this divergence reveal about how Israel views this war?
First, despite fatigue, most Israelis still see the war as unavoidable. The reservists may protest, but few refuse outright. Numbers called up are still met, even if the percentages no longer dazzle. Israelis may despair of their leaders, but they do not despair of their country.
Second, October 7 reminded Israel of its vulnerability. That day shattered the illusion that missile defenses and technological superiority meant security or that the country’s enemies had given up on the dream of trying to destroy the Jewish state. The current generation of conscripts has internalized those lessons and shown that it understands that the state’s survival depends on them.
Finally, for all its divisions, Israeli society still understands the need to fight to survive. Protests continue, politics roil, families of hostages rage at the government. Yet beneath it all lies a common understanding: If Israel does not fight, it does not exist.
Israel has always wrestled with questions of motivation, service, and sacrifice. From the earliest days, critics warned that prosperity and modernity would sap the pioneering spirit. Yet, when tested, the country has rediscovered its resolve.
The current call-up reflects that pattern. Yes, reservists are weary, and many are angry at the government. But the younger generation’s determination shows that the national spirit has not been extinguished. It has been passed down, renewed, and even strengthened.
That is perhaps the ultimate takeaway: Israel remains a society where the collective still matters. The reservists grumble; the new conscripts burn with youthful zeal. Together, they form an army fighting a war barbarically thrust upon the country – unwanted, seemingly endless – but one it cannot yet set aside and one both those called back and those just called up know it cannot afford to lose.
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli soldiers rummaging through private homes in Gaza. Forces destroying plastic figurines in a toy store, or trying to burn food and water supplies in the back of an abandoned truck. Troops with their arms slung around each other, chanting racist slogans as they dance in a circle.
Several viral videos and photos of Israeli soldiers behaving in a derogatory manner in Gaza have emerged in recent days, creating a headache for the Israeli military as it faces an international outcry over its tactics and the rising civilian death toll in its punishing war against Hamas.
The Israeli army has pledged to take disciplinary action in what it says are a handful of isolated cases.
Such videos are not a new or unique phenomenon. Over the years, Israeli soldiers — and members of the U.S. and other militaries — have been caught on camera acting inappropriately or maliciously in conflict zones.
But critics say the new videos, largely shrugged off in Israel, reflect a national mood that is highly supportive of the war in Gaza, with little empathy for the plight of Gaza’s civilians.
“The dehumanization from the top is very much sinking down to the soldiers,” said Dror Sadot, a spokeswoman for the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, which has long documented Israeli abuses against Palestinians.
Israel has been embroiled in fierce combat in Gaza since Oct. 7, when Hamas militants raided southern Israel and killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 240 hostages.
More than 18,400 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, around two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory. About 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced within the besieged territory.
The videos seem to have been uploaded by soldiers themselves during their time in Gaza.
In one, soldiers ride bicycles through rubble. In another, a soldier has moved Muslim prayer rugs into a bathroom. In another, a soldier films boxes of lingerie found in a Gaza home. Yet another shows a soldier trying to set fire to food and water supplies that are scarce in Gaza.
In a photo, an Israeli soldier sits in front of a room under the graffiti “Khan Younis Rabbinical Court.” Israeli forces have battled Hamas militants in and around the southern city, where the military opened a new line of attack last week.
In another photo, a soldier poses next to words spray-painted in red on a pink building that read, “instead of erasing graffiti, let’s erase Gaza.”
A video posted by conservative Israeli media personality Yinon Magal on X, formerly Twitter, shows dozens of soldiers dancing in a circle, apparently in Gaza, and singing a song that includes the words, “Gaza we have come to conquer. … We know our slogan – there are no people who are uninvolved.” The Israeli military blames Hamas for the civilian death toll, saying the group operates in crowded neighborhoods and uses residents as human shields.
The video, which Magal took from Facebook, has been viewed almost 200,000 times on his account and widely shared on other accounts.
Magal said he did not know the soldiers involved. But the AP has verified backgrounds, uniforms and language heard in the videos and found them to be consistent with independent reporting.
Magal said the video struck a chord among Israelis because of the popular tune and because Israelis need to see pictures of a strong military. It is based on the fight song of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer team, whose hard-core fans have a history of racist chants against Arabs and rowdy behavior.
“These are my fighters, they’re fighting against brutal murderers, and after what they did to us, I don’t have to defend myself to anyone,” Magal told The Associated Press.
He condemned some of the other videos that have surfaced, including the ransacking of the toy store, apparently in the northern area of Jebaliya, in which a soldier smashes toys and decapitates a plastic figurine, as destruction that is unnecessary for Israel’s security objectives.
On Sunday, the Israeli military’s spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, condemned some of the actions seen in the recent videos. “In any event that does not align with IDF values, command and disciplinary steps will be taken,” he said.
The videos emerged just days after leaked photos and video of detained Palestinians in Gaza, stripped to their underwear, in some cases blindfolded and handcuffed, also drew international attention. The army says it did not release those images, but Hagari said this week that soldiers have undressed Palestinian detainees to ensure they are not wearing explosive vests.
Osama Hamdan, a top Hamas official, aired the video of the soldier in the toy shop at a news conference in Beirut. He called the footage “disgusting.”
Hamas has come under heavy criticism for releasing a series of videos of Israeli hostages, clearly under duress. Hamas militants also wore bodycams during their Oct. 7 rampage, capturing violent images of deadly attacks on families in their homes and revelers at a dance party.
Ghassan Khatib, a former Palestinian Cabinet minister and peace negotiator, said he can’t remember a time when each side was so unwilling to consider the pain of the other.
“Previously, there are people that are interested in seeing from the two perspectives,” said Khatib, who teaches international relations at Beir Zeit University in the West Bank. “Now, each side is closed to its own narrative, its own information, rules, and perspective.”
Eran Halperin, a professor with Hebrew University’s psychology department who studies communal emotional responses to conflict, said that in previous wars between Israel and Hamas, there may have been more condemnation of these types of photos and videos from within Israeli society.
But he said the Oct. 7 attack, which exposed deep weaknesses and failures by the army, caused trauma and humiliation for Israelis in a way that hasn’t happened before.
“When people feel they were humiliated, hurting the source of this humiliation doesn’t feel as morally problematic,” Halperin said. “When people feel like their individual and collective existence is under threat, they don’t have the mental capacity to empathize or apply the moral rulings when thinking about the enemy.”
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Associated Press writer Isabel DeBre contributed to this report from Jerusalem.
