The IDF said on Wednesday that an airstrike in Gaza City on Sunday killed Musa Abd Muhammad Hamouda, a Hamas Nukhba operative it says helped plan the explosive device attack that killed four Armored Corps soldiers on September 8, 2025.
The military tied the strike to the case that has shadowed the force since the deaths of St.-Sgt. Uri Lamed, Sgt. Gadi Cotal, Sgt. Amit Arye Regev and Lt. Matan Abramovitz. It said the operation was carried out jointly by the Israeli Security Agency and the IDF, and described Hamouda's killing as a significant milestone for the 162nd Division in holding accountable those responsible for the deaths of its soldiers.
That is why the name still matters now. The soldiers fell while serving under the 162nd Division's command during Operation Gideon's Chariots, and the military linked Hamouda to the attack that hit their tank. In its account, a cell of three terrorists reached the outskirts of Sheikh Radwan, west of Jabalya in northern Gaza, around 6 a.m. on September 8, after the battalion's forces had returned to the post from nighttime operations around 5 a.m.
The same account says the terrorists opened fire on the tank's crew and immediately threw an explosive device inside at close range, killing the four soldiers. It also says a soldier from the Nahal Brigade was moderately wounded in the exchanges of fire that followed, and that two terrorists were hit. But the military has not spelled out Hamouda's exact role beyond saying he took part in planning the attack, which leaves the line between planner and responsible party to the army's own interpretation.
For now, the action the military wants to underline is the elimination itself. It says the 215th Fire Brigade eliminated the terrorist responsible for the soldiers' deaths, but the precise part Hamouda played in the planning remains the part the public still cannot see.
