Israel is continuing to enforce a simple principle in Gaza: a ceasefire cannot become a shield behind which Hamas rebuilds its military capabilities.
The IDF announced that Muhammad Jamal Ahmad Eid, a Hamas Nukhba terrorist who participated in the October 7, 2023 invasion of Israel, was eliminated Wednesday in an Israeli strike in Bureij in the central Gaza Strip.
According to the IDF, Eid was a member of Hamas’s elite Nukhba Force and personally crossed into Israel during the October 7 assault.
His elimination is significant not merely because of his role in that attack, but because of what he was allegedly doing now.
The IDF says Eid was involved in advancing attacks against Israeli troops and civilians, training Hamas terrorists, and helping restore the organization’s military capabilities—all while a ceasefire was supposedly in effect.
A day earlier, Israel eliminated another Hamas commander in Gaza City. Saleh Ziad Ibrahim Miqdad was identified by the IDF as a platoon commander in Hamas’s naval force.
According to the military, Miqdad was also involved in preparing attacks, training operatives, and rebuilding Hamas’s capabilities.
This is the fundamental problem Israel faces with every ceasefire in Gaza.
For Hamas, quiet can become an opportunity to regroup, recruit, train, rebuild command structures, and prepare for the next round. If Israel allows that process to continue uninterrupted, tactical quiet today can create a larger strategic threat tomorrow.
October 7 demonstrated the catastrophic price Israel can pay when an enemy on its border is permitted to build military capabilities while Israeli deterrence erodes.
That lesson cannot be forgotten.
A ceasefire must mean Hamas stops preparing attacks—not that Israel stops acting while Hamas prepares them.
The IDF says both terrorists were eliminated because of the threat they posed.
That is what enforcing a ceasefire looks like: not waiting for the next attack, but preventing Hamas from rebuilding the capability to launch it.